Hi there! I have something to share with you today that is somewhat unlike what you usually see here! Well, a lot unlike actually. No paper. Much bigger than A2 size. And it took about 7 years longer to make than the average card I create.
I wish I could say that the year of COVID-19 helped me get all my unfinished projects done, but so far that hasn’t been the case, except for this project!
Seven years ago, when my Dad was still alive, and when his health began to diminish markedly and he spent some time in a hospital and then a nursing home, I would travel up to Canada to visit.
Wanting a small project that could fit in my purse and that would not require much in the way of supplies or tools, and that I could work on while we sat and chatted, (or didn’t, as it sometimes happened), I landed on this project! I could pick a color-way and fill a baggie with a few hexies each visit. It was ideal!
But wait! Before I go any further, let me show you the image from Pinterest that inspired this blanket!
I saw this and thought to myself, I could do that!
Even though I’ve only ever crocheted about 4 things in my life and they’re all scarves and they only use the three most basic stitches in crocheting, I’m sure I could make a stack of brightly colored, no-two-alike blankets for the cottage!
And I could start with one of the most advanced pattern designs in the whole stack and they would be loved and used through the years and handed down from one family and generation to the next and a little pieces of me would live on, and blah, blah, yada, yada…!
Ha.
At the rate of the first blanket, it will take me another 70 years to accomplish this ambitious idea.
The fact is though, I thought I had this blanket finished 3 years ago.
I laid out the random pattern of colors and laboriously stitched all the hexies together and then I decided I didn’t like it.
The joining stitch that I (was advised to do – by an expert) created a ridge around each hexagon and created a distinct “front” and “back”!
I knew I would never be happy with it until I ripped out the seams, and did it over.
And so, the blanket accompanied me, north to the cottage for the summer, then back home in the fall, and, with renewed hope in it’s little acrylic heart, north again for a second summer, and then back home in the fall.
But this year is 2020. (Covid-19, if you’ve been lucky enough to forget).
If that wasn’t all the reason I needed to complete a project like this, well then I should just hand in my crafter card and retire. Delete Pinterest and do something else entirely.
Like take up sailing.
Or become a scientist.
So during our 14 day quarantine, alone at the cottage in Canada early this summer, I took over the dining room table for a week and got it done!
And yes, the stitch I used to rejoin all the hexagons still looks a little ridge-y, but it’s WAYYYY better than it was and I can live with this! Over time, with some use, it might even stretch and flatten a little more, but if it doesn’t, I’m totally fine with that!
Will there be a second blanket to make this one the first of a “stack”?
Who knows. If you looked at my Knots and Stitches Pinterest board you’d see so many inspiring patterns.
So, never say never.
And I still have some wool. (And one more parent, although she’s still quite healthy and active).
But that is such a pretty Pinterest Inspiration picture, isn’t it?!
