Hand crocheted wool blanket

I’d always wanted to crochet a blanket and I also always like something to do once I’ve sat down in the evening so this project was a bit of a no-brainer.

My lovely sister-in-law who is also very crafty, bought me a brilliant book ‘200 crochet blocks for blankets, throws and afghans’ by Jan Eaton.

So I set about choosing the blocks for the blanket I wanted to make. The book actually has quite a few ideas for layouts using various blocks but I wanted to make up my own.

I settled on 3 different blocks but made each of them in 2 slightly different colourways.

Then I had to choose my wool. I knew I was going to need loads and I wanted to get something of decent quality if I was going to be putting all that time and effort into making it BUT I didn’t want to break the bank in the process.

I also wanted a large range of colours to choose from.

I settled on King Cole Merino blend DK, and it was great. I managed to find all the colours that I wanted – I chose terracotta, turquoise, cream, brown, gold, and burgundy (although the burgundy looks more purply in the photos than it really is) I was trying to capture the colours of the American South West.

I don’t know what you think but I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out.

As an added bonus it is washable and it is anti-tickle which is great because I tend to find wool very itchy.

The finished blanket is wonderfully heavy and very warm being wool. You really do feel the benefit when you wrap yourself up in it.

I ended up making 81 squares and joined them with double crochet for a really neat look and then edged it with more double crochet with the wool I had left over.

If I were to go back and do it again I think I would have made it a bit bigger – it just covers the top of our kingsize bed but I think I would have liked it slightly bigger.

I made it several years ago and the colours of the yarn have changed now so I don’t want to add to it in different colours although I guess if I could get one or two colours that match pretty well I could just make a 2 colour border? Maybe one day when my ‘to do’ list of sewing and knitting has shortened a bit.

I also made this cushion.

Now I might actually make another of those with a different design – a pair would be nice…