This is my most impressive bit of knitting ever. It is a whole blanket knitted from cotton in mad afghan squares, inspired by a book my Mum bought me called Blankets and throws to knit by Debbie Abrahams - a fantastic book with gorgeous pictures. Being a contrary sort of course I cherry-picked all my favourite squares and made my own design, with completely different yarn than the pattern calls for. It has a crochet edge in rainbow colours, and I have backed it with one layer of wadding and a cotton sheet to make it cosy. It lives behind the sofa and darling hubby and I snuggle up under it when we feel chilly or sleepy watching TV. 
It is also very popular with kitty Willow, seen here snoozing last night. She is recovering well from her fight with a car last week, there is a small shaved patch on her poor little limp tail, but she is mostly okay. Moving slowly and yowling when she gets in the wrong position, but still mostly purring. It's hard to remember not to pick her up for a cuddle, though. I just have to scratch under her chin and wait for her to decide to climb on my lap.
This is my favourite corner of the blanket - the colours are just so bright! You can see the crochet edging better here as well.
It is a transitional blanket in many ways - I began it when we moved into a rented flat in January 2004, just after my Dad died, as something to keep my fingers busy and stop me just sitting around brooding. I finished it a year and a half later just before we moved out of the rented flat into our own house. I began it with a different name than I finished it with - We got married somewhere in the middle, 4th September 2004, a date that is engraved inside our weding rings (no excuse for ever forgetting an Anniversary in this house!) One day I will get around to making a label for the back to say who made it and when, because this is going to be an heirloom. I'd like my granddaughter to have it tucked away in a cupboard somewhere when she's 60, and to leave it to her daughter. I put a lot of love and time into it and it always makes me smile when I snuggle down under its bright colours, no matter how sick or blue I'm feeling. It's a happy blanket and it exudes a feeling of safety and home. Plus it's big enough to tuck in round your toes and still come up to your nose! The perfect sofa blanket.
15 comments:
Hi! Just wanted to let you know that this submission made it into this month's Yarnival! You can view the issue on my blog. Thanks for submitting! Have a GREAT DAY!
stunning! so fun! thanks for sharing this beauty with us...
That is wonderful! Thanks for sharing!
Wow! It's gorgeous! Congratulations!
I'm here by way of the Yarnival, btw :)
Holy cow! That's one true work of art! Just beautiful!
lovely work - especially the finishing as quilt - did you "quilt" it in any way, attaching the knitted top to the sheet backing? just curious
gotta get started on my friendship log cabin!!
here via Yarnival!!
You did a beautiful job on the blanket. Future generations will be lucky to have it.
Thank you all so much for your kind praise! It was definitely a labour of love, although that doesn't mean there wasn't cursing now and then when I was doing a fiddly bit. Darling hubby kept me on track, reminding me how lovely it would be when it was finished. To answer Robin's question (Just checked out your blog - you ave a pool? I'm soooo jealous!): yes, I did quilt it a little bit: I sewed along between each square on my sewing machine, so just in a huge grid really, I keep meaning to outline quilt some of the motifs one day, but it might never happen. It depends how many cold dark winter evenings we have this year, and how many other projects are on the go!
That's a beautiful blanket and a gorgeous cat :)
I linked to you from Yarnival and I am so GLAD I did. Your blanket is just gorgeous!! I absolutely love it. I've been looking for something special in a blanket for one of my three sons and I think this is it. I finished an extra large Log Cabin blanket for my 6 foot tall 15 year old son-that covers him from the tip of his head to the tip of his toes. So I can only begin to appreciate the time you put into yours. And it's great that it's tied to your father, although there were surely some sad thoughts there, I imagine it ended up making you feel peaceful and even closer to him.
Gorgeous! I had to make one of my own! I like the idea of doing it in cotton, so soft, and one of the things that bothered me was having to look at the back, so the thought of quilting it is appealing to me.
Long term project though, I have to put some thought into this. Thanks for the inspiration.
I really love your blanket. I've not really been all that inspired to knit a blanket or afghan, until seeing this one. I'm going to bookmark this post and try to remember to revisit again when I want blanket inspiration! Kudos! :-)
I can't knit, but I want to. Have brought the Blankets and Throws book, based on the "flower power" blanket alone. Loving your blanket and hopefully will be able to use it for inspiration.
Thank you very much for the compliment! It took a long time and I did lose interest occasionally but now every time I see it I'm so glad I made it!
I really do hope you learn to knit, I really enjoy it and it is a very relaxing thing to do, whether you only indulge occasionally or every time you sit down for longer than a minute, like me! My Mum taught me when I was ten, but if you don't have knitters at home to learn from, there are groups out there that you can join and would love to teach you - it's all about the oscialising then, too, which is nice! Google 'stitch and bitch' or 'knit and natter' (the polite ones!) to help you find someone local. And a blanket is a great way to learn to do lots of techniques quickly - you only have to do a square of each, you don't have to commit to doing six feet of plain boring scarf!
Lucy - Thanks for taking the time to reply. I have bookmarked your blog, so will come back and let you know my progress. I am trying to teach myself to knit from a book and an online tutorial I found, but the suggestion of a "knit and natter" is really useful. Thanks again
Denise (aka anon as I don't have a blog)
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