So, sucktastic story. I spent freakin' 60 hours making this gorgeous blanket for my sister for Christmas. Today she came home with me unexpectedly and I realized I had left it on the couch. "Hold on, Becki," I cried, "I have to hide your Christmas present!" So I put it in the closet by my room.
Not ten minutes later, she goes for my bedroom doorknob, but I thought she was going for the closet. "No!" I yelled, "Becki, you can't open that closet! Your blanket is in there!"
Yeah. Biggest facepalm of my life.
So I let her see it early, which is why this blog post is up now instead of Dec. 26th, as originally planned. No use hiding it from her anymore.
I really wanted to give my sister something unique and fun, not something that looked like a 'granny' afghan. I loved doing this pattern. Every stitch was different, but it was repetitive enough that you didn't have to keep looking at the book. Each shape took less than fifteen minutes, so it was easy to pop one or two out in a short amount of time. It was such an entertaining project, and I would do this pattern again in a heartbeat!
I decided to make 80 squares instead of 46, like the pattern suggested. The pattern is really for a child-sized blanket and my sister is definitely fully grown, so obviously adjustments had to be made. I was concerned an 8 square by 10 square blanket wouldn't be big enough, and if the blanket was for me, I would have made it 8 by 11, maybe, but my sister is shorter and I think this size is perfect.
The stars themselves were actually very simple to learn and very quick to pump out. I used a magic ring for the center instead of the "chain a ring" technique the pattern instructed because ever since learning how to do a magic ring for my flowery fingerless gloves, I've been in love with it. The only problem I ran into for these stars was where to fasten the last point. I jumped back and forth between a few different ways, but I never found one that I was completely happy with because the final joining slip stitch was always apparent. Next time I use this pattern, I'll have to remember to join the last point as close to the first point as possible, because it causes a gap in the surrounding circle if you don't.
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| This one I connected to the last remaining dc, and while the joining slst isn't as apparent, it created a gap in the circle. |
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| This one I used a slst directly into the dc circle, creating a large and apparent joining stitch, but a better overall result. |
I'm not 100% happy with either way, but the second way is definitely the lesser of two evils. Weaving in the ends of the worse stars made the gaps in the circles far less defined, so it all worked out in the end.
I also differed from the pattern on the blue circle step. The pattern tells you to work with the unused loops of the ch st on the star's points, which gets you a result like this:
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| Looking at the left edge of the point here. |
I decided to use the back of the ch st instead, leaving the unused loop to better outline the shape of the star, like this:
I think it makes the points look more symmetrical, and it also makes the outline more sharp. You don't get as much of the yellow poking out to make a jagged edge.
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| All stars (and one full square) done! |
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| Hard to tell in this pic, but there are two different shades of blue. |
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| Good thing the white is the last step before constructing the blanket, because I don't think I could fit another stitch into those bags! |
The denim border of each square and attaching them together was definitely the most challenging part of the whole project. I'm such a by-the-book type person that I was making it hard on myself, trying to decide what the pattern wanted me to do. Once I gave myself permission to improvise a little, it went a lot more smoothly.
If the denim border was the most challenging part, what came next was the most tedious. Each square had at least 8 ends to weave in. I hate weaving in ends. It took forever.
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| Front |
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| Back |
Yeah. Times 80. It was super annoying. I was tempted to just cut them all, but that is, like, crocheting blasphemy. And it would look terrible.
As a final touch, I embroidered eyes onto the bottom right corner star, to make it look like a Mario star. I totally didn't know what to do with the back, so it looks terrible. It's only one little stitch, so Becki could have easily cut it off if she wanted, but I know my sister, and I knew she'd find it as amusing as I did. I was correct. The eyes stay.
Some pics of the finished project:
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| Crocheting the squares together created a really cool effect: raised borders that gave the blanket a texture. |
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| Mario! |
The pattern is called All-Star Blanket and can be found in Crocheted Gifts: Irresistible Projects to Make and Give.
I used a size I crochet hook for most of the parts, except the outside white-and-blue square. The pattern suggests using loose tension for that part, but many people on Ravelry suggested using a bigger hook so the tension would be consistent. I took their advice and used a size K for that. I started with a J, but it was still making the squares curl too much, so the K was perfect. The I used Red Heart Soft for some of the yarn, colors White, Navy, and Mid-Blue. The star and white-and-blue outline were both Vanna's Choice, colors Mustard and Denim Mist. The finished blanket measures about 5' 1" by 3' 9".
How much time I spent:
1 star= 7 1/2 minutes x 80= 600 minutes= 10 hours
1 circle= 8 minutes x 80= 640 minutes= 10 hours, 40 minutes
1 white square= 9 minutes x 80= 720 minutes= 12 hours
Attaching 1 square with denim yarn= 14 minutes x 80= 1120 minutes= 18 hours, 40 minutes
Weaving in ends= 9 minutes x 80= 720 minutes= 12 hours
TOTAL TIME: approx. 63 hours, 20 minutes
Started: Oct. 14, 2012
Finished: Dec. 8, 2012
Merry Christmas to you all!
