I think I mentioned a few posts back that I already have three baby blankets to make this year. The count was already three by the time it was November! Best get busy with my hook!

I have finished baby blanket number one, for Jenny, who is due imminently (how exciting!), but I can’t post photos of that yet until I have posted it off. I may do this tomorrow, time is ticking on!

Today I can show you my progress on baby blanket number 2. This is for the baby with the latest due date out of the three, don’t ask me why I started this one first. Armed with my trusty box of Stylecraft I got out my hook and my notebook and got cracking. As you can see from the photo above, this is a Granny Stripe, which are superfast to whip up (Jacquie described Granny Striping as like running with your hook, a perfectly apt description in my opinion.).

Do you know what makes it even faster though? Cutting out any colour order choosing! That’s right, I am doing an exact copy of Lucy’s Granny Stripe blanket! I got out a notebook and opened up her ta-daah post and with a bit of squinting and close examination I have written out the order of each of her stripes. It makes it so easy to work on mine! I am quite a fast crocheter, but I am slow at colour choosing. I’m much faster if I plan my colours in advance (as I do for my ripple) but I am even faster when I am outright copying.

I have to say though, I am loving this easy ride crochet. My box of yarn is by my chair, the order of colours is already decided and I come home and add a couple of rows while reading some blogs and having a cup of tea, and then a couple more after our meal. Fab!

Instant gratification, low effort. Love it!

xxxx

Goodness me, isn’t the light disappointing for taking photos at the moment? I am really struggling to take photos of my ripple that show the colours well. I think that my camera may be a little overwhelmed at the number of colours that I’m trying to get it to photograph, as well as the lack of light. I had to fiddle with the colour on this photo to get it looking accurate and that’s something I never do with my photos. I do crop photos, but I never edit them on my blog. Anyway, edited though this photo is, it is a good representation of the colours in my blanket. Pretty lush I think you’d agree!

Anyway, back to unedited, poorly lit photographs! As you can see, my ripple has grown a lot since my last update. Do you know what? The last stripes I worked on this blanket before Christmas were on the 19th November when I stayed with Rach for that Christmassy weekend. After that, I had so many things I needed to finish (like Rach’s birthday blanket) that I didn’t get the opportunity to work on my ripple at all for the rest of the year. I just put it away and left it, poor ripple. When I got back home after Christmas though, I decided to rectify this and thought that perhaps if I put as much effort and dedication into my own projects as I do for those that I make for other people, I could get it finished soon! That was an exciting thought, and I managed ELEVEN stripes in a weekend. Oof, how’s that for productive? I think that it is about 59 stripes long now. I think … tentatively … that that may be nearly done! Another 15-20 stripes to go I reckon, and then a simple border and edging. I’ve been holding off on it this week as I think I’d like to sneak another ball of yellow in. The more I look at it, the more I love the parts where there is yellow. I have a lot of blue tones left to use up and they’re just not doing it for me so much as the warm colours. I need to order another ball of yellow before I can proceed.

Tell you what though, I’m getting a decent amount of leftovers from this. I get two stripes (4 rows) out of a ball, and then almost enough for one stripe leftover. I am having fun plotting my leftovers projects. I think that a very soft cushion might be lovely, one that’s for my bed.

My favourite thing about stripy blankets is not seeing them all stretched out. Oh no. I like it when they’re all smooshled up in a pile where you have colour and stripes everywhere. Rolling it up into a sausage is also a favourite:

Are you loving it? I certainly am. I am very much enjoying my “selfish crochet”. I am being strict with projects this year: I want to finish my ripple, and Andy’s Rialto blanket. I have two baby blankets to make (one is half way through), and after that I don’t want to plan anything … all of last year I had a backlog of WIPs and I’d like to try to be inspired and start something RIGHT NOW and enjoy it, instead of feeling guilty about backlogs. Famous last words!

xxx