Saturday 28 January 2012

Ta~Dah ~ and A Monthly Make for 2012: January


The BBB ~ aka Beverly's Birthday Blanket ~ was finished in time for her birthday, sweetie~pies ~ yay!

I followed the Art Deco crochet blanket pattern in The Gentle Art of Knitting by Jane Brocket. I substituted a double-knit yarn instead of  the Aran-weight used in the pattern.  I made it using a 4.5mm crochet hook, and fairly closely followed the colours Jane used.  When it was done I edged it with one row of half-treble all round the blanket and then finished off with a bobble-shell edging, which I found on Lucy's blog (attic24.typepad.com/).

I must confess, my loves, that I was a wee bit concerned that it might be a tad too colourful but Beverly assures me that she absolutely loves it ~ thank goodness!

Although it took me quite a while to get it done ~ through a combination of procrastination and working on Christmas projects LOL ~ I am extremely happy with how it has turned out.  Once the foundation and pattern rows are in place it is a very simple blanket to crochet; one soon gets into a lovely gently rhythm which is really quite relaxing :-)

Since I have plenty of yarn left, I have now started a mini blanket for the little girl that Beverly looks after (she is a live-in child-minder) as apparently Niamh thought that Beverly's blanket was for her, bless her! I have also started another large blanket which will be a Christmas gift, so I am able to take my time with it. This is a much more subdued affair using only three different shades of yarn and I am liking it so much that it may be a teensy wee bit difficult to let it go to the intended recipients ;-) 


As an added bonus, I had just enough time to make this rather spiffing tissue-box cover to go with the BBB ~ so my Monthly Make for 2012: January project is complete, sweetie~pies :-)

The tissue-box pattern is on The Royal Sisters blog (http://theroyalsisters.blogspot.com/) and is very easy to make.  I did alter it slightly in that I had to add a couple of rows to make the cover large enough to fit my particular box of tissues.  I am going to make a couple of these for myself as well as some for Christmas gifts!

Now that the BBB is finally finished I have started some more projects ~ please note the plural there, my loves LOL  Not only have I started another two ripple blankets, albeit one is only a mini version ;-), I also have a knitted clothes-hanger cover on the go (which is a test-run trying out the best number of stitches and rows, ready for a clothes-hanger-making bonanza!) and a little making-it-up-as-I-go-along knitted bag in moss stitch which is to be a birthday (or perhaps Christmas, depending on when I get her little blankie finished!) gift for Niamh :-D

Plenty there to keep me out of mischief, methinks, not to mention lots of candidates for future Monthly Makes for 2012!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow! That is incredible! The colours are gorgeous, Beverly you are a very lucky girl! It must have taken lots of hard work, well done you!

I agree with you that the box cover is rather spiffing, you have been a real hooker this month! ;-D xx

Jenna said...

The blanket is gorgeous Sharon, I love all those colors :o) The tissue box cover is fantastic to, I never thought a tissue box cover could be knit, that's just so cool to me...LOL! Have a great day! Hugs Jennifer

Beverly said...

I am indeed an extremely lucky girl! I LOVE my birthday blanket Mum :) <3 Thank you! xxxx

Susan said...

Wow the blanket came out really nice. I started a zigzag one last year and abandoned it! Now you're making me feel like I should get started again. Love the tissue cover too... so cute.