Wondrous Women – Warm Wanderers
So, it is finished. It is now time to write the story of another “thoughts-in-knots” blanket which i recently realised are the core of my current creative crochet work. The process of making these free-form crochet blankets helps me considerably when organising my thoughts..
It started with my Nan’s work. I have been given these amazing leaves, pictured below, made by my grandma. The idea together with encouragement for Nan crocheting these maple leaves came from my mum, after having been surrounded by grandma’s crochet work for the majority of both my mum’s and my life…
After completing my last thoughts-in-knots adventure with my Rainbow coloured Chevron Crochet blanket, i quite fancied making a chevron in the round. The inspiration by the leaves i have so lovingly and preciously stored away, the connection to this project became apparent only a bit later, once the star was becoming to take it’s shape…
There i was, chuffed with myself for having mastered the increase in the circular configuration, whilst simultaneously, i reached the first hurdle. The counting. Don’t get me wrong, i love counting, and i will quite happily count my crochet stitches, but eventually, with each crochet Work-In-Progress (WIP) project, i expect to get to a stage of a perfect balance between challenge and ease. That moment when i am interested enough that i can continue working, but am able to habituate the repetition of the pattern to continue crocheting almost without looking at the work at hand. And, tried as i might have, i could not find a way to keep the number of trebles correct without counting each time i reached a tip/ corner – so, off the blanket went into the WIP unfinished basket…
Looking at online images of crochet (i know, right?!), this time crochet chevron stars in particular, gave me a way to convert the star blanket into a granny square chevron crochet in the round. i was pleased, to say the least…
Out my blanket came again to play.
As i got my head around the increasing ratios, the sides were getting larger and larger between points, until they became annoyingly long again. I know from experience, if the work annoys me, i am not likely to finish it, because it really does not provide the relaxation i look for in a crochet engagement project. This time i did not stop, however, and after some trial and error, i have managed to change the star shape into a circular one… ish…
Right at the end, procrastination had arrived, as i was finishing the blanket off with my usual crochet lacy edging. Still not sure why, usually i breeze through this bit. With this blanket, though, i was finding more and more reasons to avoid finishing it… After some strong chastising of my own crochet working ethics/ staying in power, i finished the lace trimming, and the blanket is here!
Complete with brand new product tags, washed and conditioned, it is the newest member of the family of my creations. 🙂