Crochet - "Love Hearts" Blanket

As I said in my first post (below), in October I was wandering around WHSmiths one lunchtime only to start paging through a Crochet magazine - WHY? I hear you ask ;-).

I have always wanted to know how to Crochet, as my Grandmother (Ouma Bettie) is so fond of it and I have never really had the opportunity to sit down with her and learn how to do it. Now that I live in the UK (so very far away from SA and my family...) I don't suppose I'll ever have the chance either. We normally have too much gossip to catch up on when I'm over there and no time for learning anything new ;-)

But I digress... In this magazine, there was a step by step teach yourself how to Crochet article and I thought - "This is my chance!" - and bought it. By the end of the weekend I had finished a couple of the sample flower squares, which was the pattern that showed you all the basic stiches. I decided to do a few more of those and turned them into a dolly blanket for Alyssa (my 4YO).

After these humble beginnings I went onto the internet searching for some free downloadable patterns, and came across the redheart website, where I found a loveheart pattern that immediately caught my imagination. It was the outcome of a design competition where individuals all submitted designs with a heart motif. Each month the winner's pattern got published and at the end of the year you had enough blocks to complete a blanket.

Now, my sister is getting married in April and I've was thinking of trying this design as a wedding present for her. If it didn't turn out ok, I could always buy something else at the last minute :0).

The pattern calls for 12 squares, each with a heart motif. In my infinite wisdom I decided that this blanket would end up being too small so I was going to double it up to 24 squares.

I left the wool shop with 4 bulging carrier bags of wool and my husband nearly had a heart attack when I turned up with that lot at home. It really looked as if I had enough wool for at least 10 blankets.

I hoped that 5 months would be enough time to complete all the squares, as I had no idea how long this design was going to take me. It was still a very steep learning curve after all.

I've finished all the squares now, and am in the process of tidying them all up ready to start putting them together.

So here is a preview of all the squares that are ready to go, and I'll show you the rest in a couple of days (as soon as I've tidied them up too!)




I ended up doing (and undoing) this one at least 4 times before I got it right and thought I would be stuck on it for all eternity at one point ;-)










Let me know what you think of my first attempt at the art of Crochet - All comments (and tips) would be greatly appreciated.

Lx