Oh yes! This is the part I love the most. All the scrummy squares are finished with all the stray ends dealt with and a plan for which square goes where is finalised. All that remains is to experience the thrill of seeing all my hard work and countless hours of hooky time begin to form into a useful and pretty work of art!
Once I’d decided on the sequencing I made sure that none of the squares got muddled up by making some knitting needle labels out of washi tape (yet another fabulous use for the prettily patterned sticky stuff).
There are ten rows of fifteen squares so I prepared ten of my skinnier knitting needles for skewering each set of fifteen onto.
Being very careful not to mess up the order I threaded them onto the correct needles and then stood back to admire my handiwork and take a moment to enjoy the anticipation of the task ahead.
The sight of all those neat chain edges just waiting to be crocheted together made me ridiculously happy!
Sometimes, when I’m plodding through the making of what seems like an endless amount of repetitive squares it can seem a bit daunting, but with my eyes firmly on the prize I managed to soldier on at a very steady rate. Most days I made at least a couple of the circular motifs, then tended to save them up and finish off the cream borders when I was out and about, as that meant only one ball of wool to pack up.
Now, though, the main of the work had to be done at home as the blanket went rather quickly from the more manageable joining of the first two rows…
…to a rather unwieldy three rows plus, making the whole project a bit too big for lugging onto the bus or cramming into the car.
Well, we all need a good excuse to put our feet up, kick back and relax on a comfy sofa sometimes and this is the best reason I can think of. It was lovely to settle in over an incredibly rainy weekend and methodically work through all the rows of my Spring Circles.
Some members of my furry family were happy to test run the blanket as I tried to crochet around them.
The cats weren’t too keen on being out in the incessant rain either but definitely approved of my handiwork for keeping the cosy factor going strong despite the washout of a summer we’re having so far.
Slowed down by cat blockages as I was, I eventually joined all of the first rows down the long side of the blanket and started valiantly on the final set of joins across the short side.
In the past I’ve traditionally used slip stitches for joining but thought I’d try single crochets this time.
The single crochets add an extra bit of bulk to the back of the work, and they do use up more yarn, but on the plus side they make sure you don’t get any puckering on the right side of your work. I find that my slip stitches can tend to be bit tighter than my single crochets, unless I watch my tension very carefully.
All in all, I’m very pleased with the look of the finished joins. I might even consider making a feature of the ridges created by the single crochets for another project by joining the squares at the front instead of the back of the work. This time though I kept the right sides of the squares facing and worked in the outermost set of loops only so the ridges are all hidden away on the back.
The right side edges of each square have a really neat finish and the blanket still has lots of stretchiness. Top result!
And even though Mojo loved the end of the bed before…
…he was super chuffed when the new blanket was installed!
I still have the border to do yet before I can officially tick this off the WIP list but I’m really looking forward to that part too.
Now I know it’s a bit premature, not having finished this particular project yet, but I’ve also began working on another blanket to compliment this one. Same colours – but I’m keeping it simple by just making small circles of twelve double crochets.
I’ve been making a few of these on little trips here and there, whenever I ran out of pre-prepared spring circles to edge. They’re perfect for short bus rides as they take up very little space and are super quick to make. This emergency crochet pack is now installed in my handbag at all times for the foreseeable future, so I’ll never be stuck without some crochet close at hand.
I’m not quite sure how I’m going to put these tiny squares together yet. Maybe in stripes with rows of crochet stitches in between, a bit like my Mexican Blanket, or maybe I’ll just join them into larger colour co-ordinated squares and then crochet those together in blocks.
Either way, I’ll just keep adding them to the pile as they’re finished and get a proper plan together later.
First things first though because my Spring Circles blanket won’t crochet itself a border. For which, of course, I’m very thankful, as I wouldn’t want to be deprived of any of the fun!
