Crochet Baby Blankets Galore!

Time has passed so quickly again I just realised this is my first 2015 blog post so I wish all my readers (all 3 of them;) a belated Happy New Year!

Shortly before Christmas I tried working on a new knitted hat pattern that I think will never happen now: after having to pause my pattern designing so I could knit some cabled headbands and a custom crochet phone cosy for some Etsy orders, I realised knitting cables was putting pressure on my left hand and hurt my thumb so I took out my baby yarn and started making some crochet baby blankets instead.

Since my hand was sore I was crocheting pretty slowly for a few weeks but some time in January I managed to finish my first baby blanket, listed yesterday in my Etsy shop:

Then I made another one, also listed yesterday: 

I have a lot more baby wool to go through, so I'm not sure I can be stopped until I run out. It is time-consuming, but I am enjoying the "no need to think" bit and the regular changes of stitch or colours mean that it never becomes monotonous: I've started doing this one while watching "Orange Is The New Black" on Netflix, only when my girls are at school, though, as it's a strictly over 18 show!

I'm not sure whether I'll just do a white border or pick a darker blue to spice up it up a little: I looked at the different shades of blue I have at home but none seems to be the right one (I know I can be very fussy, but I can't have anything less than perfect, can I?) so maybe I'll have an excuse to go to the yarn shop soon, but first I'll make a start on a pink one because I'll be faced with the same dilemma when I finish this too;)

So, lots more baby blankets to come in various colours (I think I need to borrow a Dulux colour wheel;), and lots of Netflix series to watch in the next few weeks for me!

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Getting Up To Speed

I've been working hard on publishing (at last!) my knitting pattern for the Chain Cable Fingerless Gloves. The knitting pattern is on Ravelry and Craftsy as well as Etsy.

It seems a bit pathetic to have it finished 2 months after I started working on this mitten pattern (you would think it was an intricate design sweater I was knitting), but I have my 3 week-long holiday as attenuating circumstances. Also, to make me feel less guilty of a 3 week holiday, I kept my hands and needles busy with my knitted summer top.

I knitted a lot of wrist warmers before being happy with the pattern, and even then I decided to knit three pairs of these mittens: one with a long wrist, one with a shorter wrist (to try and see if one ball of the merino wool I was using would be enough - it wasn't), and the last in another yarn (a wool / acrylic mix that worked well and only took one ball, even in the long wristed version).

I struggled with the thumb gusset and ended up with 2 pairs of knitted gloves that are not fit to be sold - I would have ripped them and reused the wool if I hadn't been such a dork weaving in the ends so securely - Ripping them may prove nearly as difficult as breaking out from Alcatraz but I'm not giving up on that yet, my priorities are elsewhere right now.

What am I working on now?

This is a crochet Corner to Corner (C2C) blanket I've started doing for my youngest daughter for 3 reasons:
1- She had bought a pack of 2 balls of that wool nearly a year ago and only used a small bit for making crochet chain bracelets; since she tends to get easily distracted and had no idea what else to do with it, she gave it to me as a late birthday gift.
2- She lost her crochet cushion on the ferry between Ireland and France (she just forgot she had brought it in the cabin and realised when it was too late to get it back that she had left it under her pillow - which is probably why we didn't spot it when we were packing our stuff before leaving the ferry). That crochet cushion had been made by her sister and she had paid her for it out of her hard earned pocket money. I could have made another one for her for free but she wanted it made by her sister, and her sister being tired of making crochet cushions, she wasn't willing, so I had to somehow find a way to make her forget her beloved yellow and red cushion.
3- I've wanted to try the C2C pattern for a while, and I thought that was a good opportunity (yes I know that's selfish of me, but you'll just have to forgive me for being human).

At the same time, I'm working on stocking my Etsy shop with more hand knit fingerless gloves and knitting patterns, so here is a preview of my current knitting WIP, which of course is about to be ripped as I made it a bit too small (I think I have knitting OCD):

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