My blanket so far

OK, so I have realised I seriously dont count well when it comes to wool and blankets, I either buy 20 too many thinking its going to take like 50 to make a blanket or I start out with like 25, and realise I need 20 more.. what gives?

Anyway, heres my blanket so far:

Counting the costs..

I wish I had enough money to give up working and crochet for a living - much as I stuff up and its annoying occasionally nothing like the stress of being at work.

But and heres the issue:

A 6ft by 4ft blanket, costs only around 14 odd pounds to buy the wool.

However, if you then take into account hours worked, at minimum wage, 5.80 an hour, if I can do one in roughly 2 weeks and the hours Im putting in thats gotta be somewhere around 50-60 hours a week, err thats 290 per blanket, + wool. so, if you say between 300 and 350 pounds, would anyone seriously pay that much for a blanket?? I doubt it..

Thus why I guess I cant ever give up work to crochet.

Moving on!

So, progress is very slow, this is not aided by 1 small factor.

Someone keeps sleeping on it!

My wool problem

As you can see, far too many balls of wool and somewhere to keep them safe, and stopping them from tangling

First pic.

Well, this time last week, my blanket didnt look much different, in fact, arguably I would have to do a lot to explain just how undifferent it is, but in short, the stitch I missed was gone  back to and found. The pale joiners are now 2 stitches wider, and so now add up. Sad part is, if I hadnt lost that stitch a while back Id only have had to go back 2 rows..

For those astute, yes this is the same pattern as the one I did for me before, but this time the diamonds are the darker brown not gold and the "background" is all the pale brown, oh and technically each of those diamonds forming the bigger diamond is 1 bigger, it was a 6x6 now its 7x7. As its done on slightly smaller hook, the blankets no bigger but, it is slightly thicker.

Liz Blanket

So, following the revalation that I had majorly stuffed up my blanket, I sat down and reworked back to the place where I had lost a stitch - which was half way through the first big diamond, on top of that, I then spent a couple of days working out how in heck I had got it so wrong. Turns out, I cant count, on my design, I knew what I had meant (and I swear I had counted so carefully) but, I had got it wrong and I had placed the joiners in the wrong place. As a result, this is why it wasnt working out - as when I came to do it for real, its much easier to see, and so, now I have adjusted my design and continue on.

Just a shame nearly a week later I havent caught up with where I was!

Wool tidy.

OK, my crochet has been rapidly driving me mad, at most in this pattern I will have 21 balls of wool on the go. Now, while thats a bucket load of ends and colour swapping, this isnt the problem, the problem really is 21 balls of wool rolling round the floor with dogs wanting to "help" and the wool gets mucky coz the dog hair (no matter how much you hoover) and I want to create something to hold my wool.

Now, there are wool tidys on the market, most of course hold 1 ball of wool. I have seen 1 that holds 3, but, realistically thats so no use to me, nearly everything i make requires multiple colours on the same row.

Now I had some ideas..

Now, as I think about it the area for each ball needs to be at least 7 -8 inches tall, and probably 4-5 in diameter, the bottom doesnt need to be hugely firm, but it would need to be heavy enough that any slight tugging wouldnt lift it. the tops need to be individually removable as lifting it with like 30 balls of wool going through it would be a pain.. The material would need to be non abrasive so most cloth/felt/etc would be out as it would help the wool prevent turning.

So, one theory I had was a box shape - nice and practical to make, and having diamond shaped dividors, either in cardboard or some shineyish cloth this would be reasonably simple to make but at the same time... May not be hugely efficient, plus, the issue of the "lids" comes to mind

The second theory I had was more revolving round cardboard tubes with plastic lids each end, the top lid with a hole and joining them in a kinda V shape around a pole so you can have a number of balls say 6 per row or  something but wouldnt take a lot of space.. Problem is it wouldnt be very easy to make or carry.

I just need something to organise upto 30 balls of wool (so smaller items which hold say 5 or 10 could work but they would have to be small enough they dont take up the size of my couch) where I can replace/fiddle with any individual ball without it rolling around - I dont have a wool winder, so all british balls of wool you have to work from outside in, which makes it harder to put the balls into a smaller space as they need rolling space.

Ideas would be hugely welcome - its driving me insane.

My new blanket

OK, so I started my blanket Im about 46 rows in. I got to the end of the first set of brown diamonds, went to check the spacing again as it looked a bit uneven to find, it is. How in hell have I done that? Im so annoyed. I cant see how Ive ended up out of line, there isnt the space required. Before I pull it all apart, swear and curse like a navvy and possibly even give up, I need to find where Ive gone wrong, if its coz Ive designed it wrong, I will be mad, coz thats always a possibility given I was changing the pattern, if I have counted wrong, I dont see how it seems according to my design I have the right number of stitches between the diamonds at the widest points, so how can it not add up now? The diamonds are right, only thing can be the connectors, and frankly they are simple enough that shouldnt be possible.Grr something isnt right and I dont get it.. So annoyed.

Plans - 3

I think this is the last one I promised to do

Martin Collins

Plans - 2

As Ive mentioned a few times, I intend to redo my blanket with darker diamonds, something like this

First set of plans

So

As promised I have been doing some preliminary plans for my next bunch of blankets

Peter Morgan

Sue Morgan

Gregory Morgan

Charlie Morgan

A pulley! (Dont know if its Leanne or Hannah!)

Vicki Williams

So, I still have a couple to work on prelims for but, if you're one of the above listed victims please EMAIL me (dont reply here, EMAIL) for ideas, corrections or changes.. You also need to consider the generic background colour you would want.

Jons blanket - completed

Jon should be happy to hear I have finished sewing the ends of his blanket - I get a huge amount of joy of designing and crochetting blankets but for some reason the sewing in of the ends really really gets me, Ive done some blankets that had a lot of ends, the end sewing almost wrecks the blanket for me, however, Im now setting down to design the next bunch of patterns Im going to make.

I've a number to put together, and then work out what wool I need before I put in a monster order. I wish I was a little more decisive mind, I never can decide between landscape and portrait.. I have a set of 4 to do, and so far the first ones landscape but I dont think they would all look good landscape and Im unsure about doing a mix..

sigh.

Will post them when Im done!

Black hat done!

Well Im glad to report I completed the black hat, I of course forgot to take a photo before giving it to its new owner so I will try get one soon.

Da black hat!

Tonight - in evading sewing ends (as its the only bit I hate about crochetting pretty patterns) I started a new winter hat.

As per last time its the pattern you find at this site

But this time its black!

Jons blanket - crochet complete!

Once again I find myself apologising for the lack of updates along the way, however, by wee hours of sunday norning I had completed the crochet on Jons blanket. I had the border and end sewing todo. Well, I did the border, now I just got the ends to complete.. Hes how it came into being

So there you have it. Its about 5ft by 3.5ft.