The Birthday Blanket

So now I can blog about the Afghan.  It has finally arrived at its destination, and I can relate the saga - which will be boring to most of you. :-)

It was my Mother's 70th birthday recently and her friends threw her a surprise party. They were kind enough to get in touch to let me know what they were planning even though I couldn't be there. But they did inspire me to get to work on making something to mark her 70th.

I spent ages trying to decide what to do, a throw, a scarf, a shawl, cushion covers, hat and gloves, etc.?  I have been in a bit of a crochet mode lately, so quite wanted to crochet something and settled on the idea of crocheting an afghan out of 70 squares.

I then spent ages looking at my pattern books and online to decide if I shoudl do lots of different squares, or all the same pattern, and if so which pattern, and how big, and what colour. So I finally decided on the Afghan Square, just becauss I like it, and the criss cross pattern looks nice on a big something. It is from an old Leisure arts pattern, which is a 63 square heirloom afghan.

Then began the saga of the yarns. I bought some King Cole Homespun thinking the wool content would be nice and ordered some , blue, green and cream. But at the same time I started ordering some Robin Bonny Babe Aran in pink  and green.  I started with the homespun, but it didn't look like my mother's sort of thing, and there wasn't enough anyway as with chunky yarns, the meterage is less. I was only getting 2 and half squares per skein.

So I started on the Robin in green and that really worked. The squares were lovely, the yarn was soft and yet still washable - which I think my mother would like. :-)    So then I searched local yarn shops to find some other colours. I had already bought the pink, but changed my mind about pink and green. Mum's friend had told me her living room was blue and so I decided to go with a blue. I went on ebay to find some Bonny Babe Aran in Cream, which came with no problems. And then I found what is called Madonna Blue, which I thought would be be lovely.    I ordered it and started making green squares in earnest. about 8 days later, the blue still hadn't arrived so I contacted the seller, who offered to send another one, which had a watermark, at a discount. I agreed to that.

But in the mean time, I was spending a lot of time online, wondering if I should go with the slate blue as I couldn't find anybody else selling Madonna blue. I had already gone through one 400 gm ball of the green, and knew I would need more blue if I was to do 35 squares. I spent a couple of weeks, wondering if I should get the slate blue, and waiting for the madonna blue. When it finally came, I didn't like it! I then spent another few days making squares with this madonna blue, showing people and saying I didn't like it, before I finally gave in and bought the Slate blue. And of course, the Slate looked lovely with the green and that is what I should have gone with in the first place. So I hadn't left myself much time at all to finish this thing.

I spent a lot of time on Ravelry and You tube, learning flat braid joining, which is fab. And the deadline for posting was getting closer. The party they had planned was for May 6th, and her birthday is May 9th. I really wanted her to have something to open at the party that was from me. I planned to leave 10 days for posting. But of course, it was 7 days in the end because I didn't finish in time. And it is a bit smaller than I would have wanted, had I had the time. But I got it in the post on April 30th, on the way to dropping C off at Scout camp.  It cost £40 to send to America via airmail, Global economy. And then the waiting began. It didn't arrive for the party by the 6th. But I held out hopes for the 9th. Still didn't arrive. By the 11th I was getting a bit worried. Finally popped into the Post Office to see what to do, (having lost the receipt in all the hubbub of posting and getting C to camp) and they weren't much help. But this morning I woke up to an email saying it had finally arrived - 3 weeks exactly- and that she loves it!

 
All in all a very boring story, but I don't think any project has occupied my mind so much. It took me ages to decide on project, then pattern, then colours, then mix ups with yarn and posting, - which means it has turned into a bit of a saga.  I really wanted this to be special for my mum. Having said that, I should have started it earlier. It isn't like a 70th birthday sneaks up on you. :-) I did have plenty of warning, I just started late.

But now I have plenty of yarn for other things. M wants me to do her something with the pink and cream that I didn't use. So now I can spend several weeks deciding what to do for her.