I’ve been aiming to make a number of Christmas gifts this year and having started a crochet blanket (that has been occupying quite a bit of my time) I thought that I would share a few pics of the progress.
The whole thing started a while ago when I had the idea of making a large lap blanket as a gift.
Whilst out having a mooch around town the other week I stumbled across this luscious space-dyed yarn.
It’s by Jarol. The range is called New Arrival and the colour that I got was shade 318 “Merlin”.
I found it at a local discount store for £4 per 200g ball. (They only had two 200g balls so I got both). I have since seen it online for between £3.60 and £7.50 so can hopefully restock if I need to.
The space-dyed colouring was the thing that attracted me the most. I thought that it would work well as a large granny square lap blanket as the colours would be quite eye catching.
I knew a basic granny square pattern so chose to use that (rather than complicate things by learning a new one for such a large project).
Over the space of the first weekend I actually ended up crocheting for fourteen hours!!! It’s not a wonder that my shoulders and hands ended up aching a little, lol.
Anyway, the first two day’s effort gave me quite a good head start.
After this point the rounds were now taking about an hour each to complete so I was only managing to add a couple of these per session after that.
When I got to the end of the two 200g balls I had a granny square almost 40 inches square!
I still had a little yarn left but it was only enough for about 3/4 of a round. As I was aiming for a blanket of about 50-60 inches square I now had a choice to make – do I get more of the same yarn and make the whole thing from it OR do I start adding some solid colour bands around the edge (that would coordinate with the colours found in the main block)…?
If you’ve followed this blog for some time you might guess that I’m not always good at making snap decisions when it comes to making things.
In fact, I’m still deliberating! Lol.
What would you do? Please let me know in the comments section below as I just can’t decide!
Help please!
GENTLEMAN CRAFTER 
contact the seller for batch number you never now then if that’s no good pick the colours depending on the sex of person you are making it for. i.e. pick the pinks and lilacs for female or blues and dark colours for males. then at least you now you tried
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If you get the same wool the dye might be different and not match so what I was thinking is that you could do a band of a couple of inches using one of the main colours in the original wool and then use the wool of the different dye but the same as the main square to make the square up to size. Then you could finish the whole square off with another band of either the same plain wool as you used for the band or pick out another one of the main colours. Just a thought. I’m really looking forward to seeing the finished square.
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I’d finish it in a block colour as the shades differ from one batch to another. It’s so beautiful John and I can just see myself sitting watching the tele in the evening all snug and warm.
Bye Val in Spain x
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I think I would get some good matching colors!! altho I do love these colors!!!
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Hello John,
I would add some solid colour blocks of banding , in my opinion this would create a more “finished” look. I would also consider a solid final row or two to give the blanket a finished structure.
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I like all the colours John so any would look good as a band. After trying to crochet for nearly a year I found out today where I was going wrong, increasing on each line, instead of going into the next stitch, silly me, hope by next year I can share my project with you x
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