On the rebound :: a new crochet blanket {blogtoberfest day 6}

I’m not entirely sure how it started – like most of our creative misadventures, the origin is lost in time and the depths of a ridiculously long Facebook message thread. I remember it was while we were knee deep in our respective ripple blankets, and with nary a light at the end of any tunnel, we seemed to come to the consensus that a rainbow blanket was a thing we needed. Then we came across this granny ripple on Pinterest (of course), and yes this was definitely a thing we needed…until we needed a lacy wave ripple more. We kicked the idea around a bit more, and decided we liked the concept, but preferred a less open look, and like that we were off and running and working out a pattern for what we wanted. And ordering a rainbow of Stylecraft yarn from Deramores  – though not before obsessing over the perfect rainbow of colours and sharing screenshots and comparing choices and overthinking quantities of the neutral. Yarn arrived and swatches were crocheted up and the pattern was panel-beat into shape after a couple of unforeseen complications.

Alley was the first off the mark getting her blanket under way and we were able to get a good look at it at camp last year. I was determined not to start until my ripple was done, and not 24 hours after finishing that, I had this little beauty underway and am quite happy with my progress – I’m adding at least one colour a day which is a pretty epic achievement considering the ripple took me three years!! I hope to get close to one colour band by the time quilt camp this year comes around. We are just waiting on Car to get cracking on hers, and I’ve thrown the “finish one blanket before starting another” rule out the window as I try and encourage her to ditch her granny stripe and join us on the rainbow bandwagon. With camp at the end of the month, this is one of only three projects I am taking – and my only crochet. The decluttering mindset is going strong, and I am all about Getting Stuff Done. 2016 is going to be the year of fresh starts and no WIP hangovers. Maybe. Hopefully. My two outstanding block-of-the-month cross–stitches might disagree…

This is also my first time using a project book, and I’m not quite sure why I haven’t before! I’m loving watching the little swatches fill up the right hand side, and the pattern and details recorded on the left. In years to come, this will be a fun book to look back on and remember the fun I had working up these projects. It will also make it a heck of a lot easier for my finished project wrap-ups when I want to post quantities used, like with my last blanket, where I had to go back to my emails and search for the invoices!

I’ll share regular updates on this project in the hope that will keep me accountable and motivated… but then I said that about Project Life and look how badly I’ve fallen behind on that!