12 July 2015

Triangle crochet blanket

It has been a while since I have blogged about anything crochet-related but I can finally share a blanket I started over 18 months ago. I am not usually one to leave things unfinished for so long! Inspired by all the fabric triangle quilts I was seeing on the internet at the time, I started to make a child's blanket out of crochet triangles. It measures about 87cm x 114cm and is a mixture of acrylic and wool.If you are looking for a relatively quick project, this is not it. When I discovered that it takes me around 40 minutes to single crochet just one triangle, the enormity of the blanket project I was about to embark on hit me and I had to push through a few moments of ennui - and also downscale the size of the project to a baby blanket. It is now the second winter since starting this blanket and the cold nights we've been experiencing over the past few weeks have really been the motivator I needed to forge ahead and complete it.What I find with crochet is that I can never be sure exactly how much yarn I will need for any particular project. I used up some of the yarn in my stash and needed to buy more pale pink and grey only to discover that not just those particular colours, but all of the yarn I was using in this blanket has now been discontinued. Sad face. There is something to be said for not leaving unfinished projects languishing in a bag for over a year. It meant that I had to use the remaining yarn in my stash and resulted in enforced placement of some of the triangles where I would have otherwise chosen a different colour for greater balance. Similarly, the very simple double crochet border and pink single crochet edging was a result of not having enough yarn to work the border I really wanted to use. I had got almost two thirds of the way through the border before I realised I would not have enough yarn and had to unravel it all. In the end though, I am happy with the simpler edging so maybe this was just how it was meant to be.
Aside from how slow the triangles were to work up and running out of yarn, the other issue that I faced was finding the best way to stitch them all together. If I was more certain on colour placement from the beginning, a join-as-you-go method would have been ideal and I should have left long tails on each of the triangles to make the process even more simple. Since I had woven the tail of each triangle as I completed it, I put the right sides of the triangles together and slipstitched them. It results in a standard ridge-like join on the back of the blanket.In part because of all of the issues I encountered, I do feel such a great sense of satisfaction to have finally completed it. What are you working on at the moment? I'd love to hear from you.

6 comments:

  1. Imagine if you had to knit it... would have taken twice as long! Love it, love the colours. Well done for finishing in the face of a few hurdles - the satisfaction takes the cake at the end of the day ;) x

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  2. There is a certain satisfaction that comes with completing something, regardless of you like the finished project or not! I really like this blanket! Colours are great and the simple border works well. I've been seeing a lot of triangles about recently, this might be my be my next project!

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  3. I love this! It looks fantastic. I don't have any projects on the go at the moment, but I have a half-formed idea in my mind that I'd like to learn cross stitch. We'll see!

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  4. My mustard blanket was like that! 10min per square and 248 squares in total. I lost the will to live several times and it became a lap blanket after starting out a bled blanket... It is (kinda sort of) worth it afterwards! It certainly makes cuddling under it very appreciated xox

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  5. Fabulous Leanne!! I wish that I could crochet that fast!! I seem to be so slow! Oh well, I don't mind. I love the triangles, they are wonderful and the colours look great together! xx

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  6. The blanket is lovely and I'm sure you are very pleased to have it finished. I've recently finished a big crocheted blanket in cotton and a little acrylic/wool lap blanket. I ran out of yarn for both of them but managed to make it look alright. I remember buying yarn for a blanket a couple of years ago and a few weeks later couldn't get more of one of the colours because it had been discontinued.

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