Mollie Makes inspired blanket reveal

It's finally here - I have been putting off taking photos for days due to lack of sunlight/lack of time. However it's amazing what a bit of freshly laid snow can do for the light levels in our lounge. You may remember when I started this blanket back in August last year (where did all that time go?!) - see this post. I can't believe it has taken me quite that long to make, although I did stop and start a few times whilst making other stuff. It was the most ideal blanket to crochet during the warm summer months - holding a three inch square piece of crochet does not make me feel hot and grumpy! It was also very portable too. Once I had made enough squares, I laid them out on the floor until they looked right and then I took a photo of them, which I printed out so I knew which colour to join on next. I joined one entire row and then sewed in all the ends before starting another row. I had to force myself to do this as I really didn't wanted to have to sew in all the ends in one go once the blanket was complete. I think it took about ten days to get the blanket all together. This was all done over the Christmas holidays so it was fairly relaxing to do whilst watching Christmas specials and nibbling on leftovers.

Then I left it. I tried to think of what type of border I would like. I put it to one side and thought long and hard. I love this blanket and a lot of hard work went into making it so I wanted to ensure that the border was right.

Well it sat on the side for a couple of weeks without any attention. I picked it up and tried out a few different borders over a 6 inch length but unravelled them all as they were not working. At this point I also decided that I did not want the border in a dark grey colour and would use to the Stylecraft parchment colour instead. The dark grey seemed to make the border too prominent, taking your attention away from the squares. Anyway, I bit the bullet and started crocheting a border taken from the book my Mum gave me for Christmas, and here is the result.

The border is quite understated which is how I wanted it to be, to blend into the background and let the squares do the talking. I'm so glad I chose the dark grey to outline the squares though, it seems to make the colours jump out at you a bit more. The squares were joined using double crochet (UK) which was a bit fiddly to start off with but once I got into a routine, it was a very quick method of joining. Here is a photo of the reverse, you can just see the grey stitches.

And here is the blanket on our two seater sofa, where it was intended to go. Just the right size.

I am a little bit possessive over this blanket. E asked if she could wrap it round herself whilst watching tv and I said no. This has led me to the belief that I do need to make another blanket, one that can actually be used (!) Never fear, I have some more yarn and lots of ideas whirling around in my head. I'm thinking a ripple or a chevron, or a ripple....

Have a fab weekend. I am off to drink tea and look through the latest Mollie Makes mag. It's half term next week but my body is saying that it has started early so I very much doubt anything will get done in our house today. xx