I'm
not sure if this happens to anyone else, but when I bring my knitting
projects to work, my coworkers are absolutely fascinated by anything I'm
working on. Now because I'm at work and will have to put down anything
I'm working on at a moment's notice, I don't usually bring any large
and complicated lace projects or anything but even the most simple
stockinette hat will make them "ooh" and "ahh" over it. And it feels
really good. The oohs and ahhs are usually followed immediately by them
insisting one of two things. Either A: I should sell my knitting and
start my own little knitting shop. Or B: I should make them something.
Now, part A can be a blog post all on its own. But part B is how this blanket came to be. A coworker found a post on Facebook of the Sunshine Blanket by Jody Pyott
The coworker came into the office and showed me the post on her phone and basically said she wanted me to make it for her. And, as is my normal response to those sorts of questions/demands, I declined. I was working on other projects and don't really appreciate when people just think I can just make them whatever they want without question. It isn't like I just snap my fingers and a finished item appears, it takes a lot of work.
I
held fast for about 8 months. The coworker would bring it up every
once and a while in a joking way, but it always felt like there was a
non-joking part hidden. Like if, all of a sudden, I would accept and
say I would make it she wouldn't turn me down. But I kept brushing it
off until her 11 year old daughter was diagnosed with scoliosis and had
to have surgery. Then, I decided, I would make the blanket.
There were a few tricky things about this blanket. First of all, it was crochet and I can only sort of crochet a rectangle. Second, it was a bunch of individually made blocks that are all sewed together afterward and that just sounded tedious beyond belief. And lastly, it was a whole blanket!
I started the blanket on December 15, 2017 and ended on January 10, 2018. That's right, I finished in less than a month, which I was very happy with. January 10th was my deadline as the surgery was on January 11th. There were quite a few very late nights the last few days as I was rushing to put it all together.
The blanket is, basically, a bunch of crochet rectangles with bobbles (this is the tutorial for the 'popcorn stitch' that I followed). I knew how to crochet a basic rectangle and the bobbles aren't that bad at all. I know my gauge with my crochet isn't consistent so I was afraid the blocks would end up all different sizes and the blanket would be all sorts of lumpy when I was done. I'm happy to report that my gauge did vary a bit between the blocks, but not to the extent that it affected the overall blanket (I did have to do some creative seaming at times, but nothing too bad). The above picture is, unfortunately, the only picture I have of the blanket. I didn't do a very good job documenting this project and I wish I had. This project did give me the confidence in my crochet skills to consider expanding out to more complicated crochet projects. I'm not ready to crochet a doily or anything, but maybe a simple baby dress could be in my future.
If you are a knitter and are curious about dipping your toe into crochet, Very Pink Knits has a crochet for knitters series on her YouTube channel (playlist linked here) that I kept going back to.
Now, part A can be a blog post all on its own. But part B is how this blanket came to be. A coworker found a post on Facebook of the Sunshine Blanket by Jody Pyott
The coworker came into the office and showed me the post on her phone and basically said she wanted me to make it for her. And, as is my normal response to those sorts of questions/demands, I declined. I was working on other projects and don't really appreciate when people just think I can just make them whatever they want without question. It isn't like I just snap my fingers and a finished item appears, it takes a lot of work.
There were a few tricky things about this blanket. First of all, it was crochet and I can only sort of crochet a rectangle. Second, it was a bunch of individually made blocks that are all sewed together afterward and that just sounded tedious beyond belief. And lastly, it was a whole blanket!
I started the blanket on December 15, 2017 and ended on January 10, 2018. That's right, I finished in less than a month, which I was very happy with. January 10th was my deadline as the surgery was on January 11th. There were quite a few very late nights the last few days as I was rushing to put it all together.
The blanket is, basically, a bunch of crochet rectangles with bobbles (this is the tutorial for the 'popcorn stitch' that I followed). I knew how to crochet a basic rectangle and the bobbles aren't that bad at all. I know my gauge with my crochet isn't consistent so I was afraid the blocks would end up all different sizes and the blanket would be all sorts of lumpy when I was done. I'm happy to report that my gauge did vary a bit between the blocks, but not to the extent that it affected the overall blanket (I did have to do some creative seaming at times, but nothing too bad). The above picture is, unfortunately, the only picture I have of the blanket. I didn't do a very good job documenting this project and I wish I had. This project did give me the confidence in my crochet skills to consider expanding out to more complicated crochet projects. I'm not ready to crochet a doily or anything, but maybe a simple baby dress could be in my future.
If you are a knitter and are curious about dipping your toe into crochet, Very Pink Knits has a crochet for knitters series on her YouTube channel (playlist linked here) that I kept going back to.
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