I taught myself to crochet a few days ago, on February first. I had lots of other things that I should be doing, but I decided to do that instead. I had already learned to “single crochet” (though I had no idea that was what it was called) and had done that on the borders of my garter stitch blankets (which I will photograph at some point). I had lots of leftover Malabrigo Rios, so I decided to make a crocheted blanket out of the leftovers. (I don’t think they count as “scraps” if you have over a skein of several colors left over.) I made a single granny square and decided that it looked too open, but it still taught me the basics. I’ve learned to do a more solid granny square, and the blanket is coming along fine.
There is a story behind this blanket. I have this cat. Exhibit A:
He looooooooooooves the Rios garter stitch blankets that provided the aforementioned leftovers. Loves them. Wants to be on them constantly, especially if said blankets are also on my lap. Unfortunately, he loves them with his claws. This leads to snags, and snags make me sad. The reason why he’s on a towel in the above photograph is because the blankets are under the towel. The towel was my last-ditch effort to protect the blankets until I could take them somewhere out of his reach. He decided that nesting on the towel was fine, obviously, but I wanted a blanket that Hiro and I could cuddle with together.
Enter the blanket (which I’m calling, “I’m In Shock! Look! I Have A Blanket!”).
The weather has been insane lately and looks like this:
This allows me to take pictures like this:
That’s one square in each of the colors I’m using for the blanket. Here’s an indoor shot:
From top to bottom, the colors are Candombe, Solis, Purpuras, Ivy, Sunset, Jupiter, and Pearl Ten. I also have some Lettuce hanging around, but it’s so close to the Ivy that I’m not sure if I’ll use it. On the other hand, the whole idea is to Use The Stash this year (did I mention that I’ve gone Cold Sheep?), so I might throw it in if I don’t have enough of the other colors. The idea is to crochet 108 squares and then put them together with Natural somehow. I’m not sure how; I figure I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. I’m loving the project so far, and it’s certainly going to make a blanket faster than the Hexis on which I am still plugging away (when I remember). The jewel tones are a welcome bright note in a winter that seems determined to hang on for at least a little while longer.
I am seriously crocheting this blanket because I like to learn new things and crocheting is fun, not because my cat is a spoiled beast who totally deserves a Rios blanket to snuggle with. Honest.