My First Crochet Blanket – It’s a Queen!

I finally finished my first crochet blanket. I have been crocheting since I was very young.  I was taught by my mother.  But I have never made anything this big.  I have started blankets like this before, but I have never finished one.  Until now.  This has been a project I have been wanting to do for years.  And now, I can mark that off of my list.

What I liked most about this is that it is very easy to make.  If you know how to make a granny square, you can make this very easily for any size bed.  And, if you don’t know how to make a granny square, there are too many internet resources that will teach you how to make one.  Just google it and you will be flooded with tutorials on how to make a granny square.

I started this blanket about a year or so ago, making squares during lunch on my job.  Then, I just dropped the project and didn’t pick it back up until the beginning of the year. I finished the squares I had already done, about 96 or so, and then I weaved in all the threads. I honestly thought that I had enough squares to finish my blanket, but I was wrong.  When I laid the squares on the bed, just to get an idea, I discovered that I needed about 48 more squares.  I was not happy about that.  So, I decided to put the squares that I already made together, and then work on the additional 48 squares, which were approximately 4 rows. Below is a picture of it on my bed so I could see where I was and where I needed to be.

 

I really did not want to do the other 48 squares, but my goal was to finally finish this blanket, so I had to get on it and change my perspective about the additional effort.  Now that I am done with the blanket, I am very thrilled with the outcome. I know I will have it for a long time because I still have the afghan my mother made me when I was 19 and moved out and into my own apartment.  It was a housewarming gift from her and I have cherished and used it for years.  I can be very sentimental.

I used I love this yarn! in white and linen. I used these colors because I wanted to make it neutral and easy to match all of the handmade pillowcases I have made.  Of course the color variations are endless.  I only used two colors because I hate weaving in the ends.  You may want to use 3 or 4 colors on each square.  You can get crazy with a project like this.  I could not wait to put it on my bed and see what it looked like, and I was very happy with what I saw.

So, if you, like me, find it difficult to finish big projects like this [and a crochet coat I am making], let me give you some tips on how I finally got it done.  When I added this to my list of goals for 2021, I knew I needed a plan to finish this once and for all.  Without a plan, it would likely make it to my 2022 goal list.  And I did not want that. I wanted to finish it this year.  So, how did I get it done?

Well, I worked on it almost every day, only committing a small amount.  For example, when I picked the project back up, I only had some of the white portions of the granny squares done. My goal was to finish the 96 white squares and then finish adding the trim color in linen to all 96 squares.  After I finished the white squares, my goal was to trim 10 squares a day until those 96 squares were all done.  This was done in about 10 days.  Then my next goal was to connect all the rows together once I decided how many rows I wanted.  I just connected 1 row every day one way.  I could not really connect the other way until the other 48 squares were done.  Sometimes if you try to do too much, you will get discouraged and tired, and just put it down again for a more extended period of time.  So pace yourself.

After everything was connected, I started working on the 48 squares I needed in order to get the length I wanted. I just crocheted 6 of the white inner squares every day until I had all 48 done.  Then I pulled in the strings and started adding the two rows of the linen color to the 48 squares, only finishing 5 a day.  It doesn’t matter how much you do each day, just do something.  I mostly worked on this during the week.  I rarely touched it on the weekends, and sometimes, I still let weeks go by before picking it up again.  But I did have a deadline date.  My goal for this project was May 30.

Eventually, I was done with the 48 additional squares and I only had to add them to the blanket I had already started. I just added one row of 12 every other day or so until I had all of the rows completed in one direction.  Then I connected all of the rows in the other direction, and weaved in all the strings.  I then added two rows of double crochet and one row of single crochet the entire perimeter of the blanket and I was finally done.  There are 144 squares on this blanket.  This will be on my bed for a long time. I love the colors and the way it turned out.  Here is the finished blanket!

And a few more pics.

Look how good it looks on my couch.  If you missed the post about how I updated my couch by recovering the pillows, here it is.  Update that Old Couch with New Pillows.  The blanket and the pillows blend beautifully together.

Regarding duration, and finishing.  My dear friend, who crochets all the time and her work is absolutely flawless, told me years ago when I wanted to make a full length poncho and was feeling overwhelmed because of the sheer volume of it, that, “You don’t have to finish it today.  Just do a littler every day until it’s done.  If it takes a year, well, it takes a year.  No rush.”

As always, thanks for letting me share. I hope you enjoyed this post because I enjoyed sharing it with you. “Like” if you like and please subscribe and share.

 

Lay around.  Gain a pound.