I’m sure if you’ve read my previous posts you’ll notice I haven’t mentioned any current projects. My thinking is since it’s taken a while to get a blog going, I should cover all my big leaps and bounds in my creative journey, and then when I feel caught up, I’ll start posting current projects.
With that said, I think it’s high time to talk about blankets.
Crocheting a blanket was SO intimidating to me. When I really started pumping out projects, my focus was mainly on smaller items like headbands, hats, scarves, ect. And those also weren’t anything fancy. Maybe a stripe here or there, but that’s about it. Then one day, one of my close friends told me she was pregnant.
When I found out she was going to have a boy and had these cute nursery colors picked out I knew this was the perfect opportunity to make my first baby blanket. Mainly for two reasons, 1) she’s my friend so if it turned out terrible, I knew she would still think it was a nice gesture and 2) baby blankets are way smaller than regular blankets.
First, I decided to learn how to crochet chevrons. Because when you’re making a project that intimidates you, you should always go for an unfamiliar technique.
The two ugliest yarns in my stash.
After making my chevron swatch, I was ready to tackle the blanket. Of course, I had no idea how much yarn was required for this venture so I didn’t buy enough and then I couldn’t get a hold of any more of the gray I needed. But, I made it work and there it was, my first chevron item and first ever blanket!
It really makes me happy knowing that this blanket is now in a sweet little boy’s room.
After finishing the blanket, I felt pretty confident in my skills, so I posted it as a custom order item in my shop. As it turns out, this blanket ended up being my first “stranger order” via Etsy. Meaning, a complete stranger stumbled upon my shop, and liked my blanket enough to buy for herself. Before this, my initial sales were all friends and family members (thanks guys).
I literally stayed up until 3 a.m. one night to get it finished because I wanted to send it early as a nice surprise for the customer (I never do this anymore, sleep is non-negotiable).
Presentation game on point.
Obviously that wasn’t the case, my first foray into letters was dismal. The “W” I was attempting to make looked more like a weird non letter thing than anything at all. It took me about a week to find a decent alphabet pattern, but I did, and it turned out pretty great (by the way, this blanket is just hdc over and over again until I got the size I wanted, you’re welcome).
With a matching bowtie, of course.
I loved the way this blanket turned out so I made several more, the hdc stitch really gives it a great texture.
So I’d mastered the chevron blanket, and the stripe blanket, it was time for something new; another girlfriend was having a baby (for real, I had so many preggo friends in a very short period of time) and I wanted to try a new pattern for her.
The shell stitch was something I’d seen around on various other blogs and boy did it look awesome, and it was! Not only is this stitch super adorable, it’s pretty easy and I was really happy with how this newest baby blanket turned out.
Look how cute! SO cute.
Are you still with me? So now I’ve got several baby blankets under my belt, and Christmas was now looking right around the corner so I thought, full size blankets. Blankets for everyone! It took weeks because these puppies are big enough to cover a queen size bed but boy, I was happy with how they turned out.
And then I spent six months working on one for myself.
I just finished up one for myself (it really did take me six months to finish) and let me tell you, there is nothing better than finishing a project for yourself. I mean, making things for others sure is nice, but the satisfaction I felt at finally completing my own blanket and being able to snuggle it eternally is indescribable.
Welp, thanks to all of you who stuck it out for this lengthy post! And thanks for stopping by!
soft goods company 