Another project that I have on the go at the moment is the Joy’s Journey blanket designed by Dedri over at “Look what I Made”.

I found the pattern one night when i was browsing through Ravelry looking for something to make (like a lot of other nights – I think I love finding patterns nearly as much as I find starting them!!).  I decided that I wanted to make a nice cosy crochet blanket and this one looked straightforward enough to make, and the use of variegated yarn made it interesting.

The next morning, I went straight to my local yarn store to get the yarn the pattern suggested – Scheepjes Noorse Wol.  It was just after Christmas and the shop was REALLY busy.  I got chatting to a lady who had been knitting for years.  She was making a knitted chess-set for her friend (a commissioned job I think!).  It looked really intricate and she needed a lot of yarn…but I waited patiently. I’d not heard of Scheepjes before and wasn’t entirely sure how to pronounce it…silly really.  After a bit of a wait, I managed to get the right yarn by pointing it it on the website!!

I was really excited to start, I had 12 lovely balls of gorgeous looking yarn and they all needed using!!  The Scheepjes yarn is really beautiful to crochet with.  It has a slight sheen and slips really nicely on the hook.  I’m using a size 6mm hook.

Once I started off, this blanket grew really quickly at first and I was flying round.  I did have a couple of issues with it starting to “twist” in the middle, so if you make it, pay close attention to capturing what Dedri calls the “hidden corner stitch” to make sure that your blanket isn’t lob-sided.

Despite the slight wonkyness (which i’m hoping i can fix with a bit of blocking, i’m really pleased with how its going so far.

I decided that this really needed to go to stay with a friend of mine who moved to Australia a few years ago (I miss her!!).  I’m really excited to be going to visit her in a couple of months time though and wanted to take her a hand-made gift!  It sounds silly I know taking a blanket to someone who lives in a country where it is hot most of the year.  She tells me though that in their winter, sometimes it drops down to 10-15 degrees and with no heating in the house it gets a bit chilly in the evenings (bbrrhh, can you imagine it….sometimes the English summer barely gets above that!! I suppose its all relative though!) I’m hoping that she can use it to snuggle up on the sofa with in the winter.

I’m so pleased by how this blanket is turning out, that I’ve just made a trip back to my favourite yarn shop to buy more yarn…enough to make me one of these gorgeous blankets too!

My Tips

A couple of tips for you that I’ve found useful.  I struggled to find the last corner stitch, so I found that putting a locking stitch marker in the last stitch as I crocheted it meant that I could find it again easily when i got to the next round.

I’m also terrible at having a million different projects on the go at once.  I’m also not very careful about putting projects away, so to protect the work that I’ve done, I find putting a locking stitch marker through the last stitch that I’ve crocheted means that I can remove the hook without fear of it unravelling.  I can also easily find where I need to start again that way too.

I’ll post more pictures as it continues to grow!