musI made the coolest blanket for my sister. I don't tend to make things for people outside of my house but when I saw this pattern from The Crass Crafter on Etsy (link to pattern) I knew that I needed to make it for her. My sister has no filter. Well, as we've gotten older she has gained some of a filter but it all goes out the window when we're all together. I bought the pattern, did not like the color scheme so I figured out how much of each color was needed and then asked her for the colors she wanted in order of what would be the most to least used. If you're offended by swear words then please do not move on in this post.
This is the image that came with the pattern. It gave you an idea for placement but really you can do whatever you want and put the words wherever to make the shape you want. The pattern was for the words/blocks only. No direction on how to stitch everything together or what to do for a boarder so it was free reign!
This is the color scheme that my sister went with. To be honest, until I put them all together I wasn't sure about the combination but it ended up turning out great. Black was the color she chose that was used the most (yardage of yarn wise) and let me tell you a few things about working with black yarn. It is very difficult to see your stitches when using black yarn. If someone makes something for you with black yarn, thank them for their suffering. If you need to conceal some words that some people might get offended by, it's harder to read the black! Case and point. Here are a few words in a couple different colors.
I thought I would take a picture of every word as I finished but I didn't. These are the only words I actually have on the camera roll on my phone. In order to have an easier time stitching the words together, I gave each word a boarder. It was a simple single crochet around with three singles in each corner. I thought it would give each word/block some uniformity as well.
When it came time to stitch the words together I used a slip stitch that looks like a single crochet but it lays flat and isn't raised. I loved the way it turned out but part of me wished that I had done the invisible seam join just for a little cleaner look but that's all my own personal opinion. Once I got all the words stitched together in rows, I stacked them up so I could stitch the rows together. Really once the rows are stitched you can put them in any order, again, not just how the image has it but I stuck with how the pattern showed me.
Once I got all the rows stitched together, I looked at how much yarn I had left of every color and used that to determine the order for the boarder. I have to admit. When I saw the black and mustard together I thought of Charlie Brown and also how cool it would be to make a jack-o-lantern out of the left overs of that yarn (spoiler alert...I didn't make a jack-o-lantern...but I could). I did a reverse single crochet as the final round of the boarder because I like the cord look that it gives and as much as I hate to admit it...I think I should have used 2 strands to do it. Regardless, here is the final product in all of it's glory!
As you can see, the black words are harder to read. Also, when it came to completed size, the pattern said that size will depend on type of yarn and hook used as well as your own personal tension. This is on a queen size bed and you can see that it hangs over a little on each side and some on the foot of the bed and goes right up to the top of the mattress and over the pillows. When I saw the amount of yarn in the box before I started, I figured it was going to be big but I really didn't have any idea how big it was going to be or how heavy it was going to get.
When I folded the blanket up after taking the finished picture I had no idea how I was going to get it to my sister. She knew I was making her a blanket but didn't know anything else. I was searching for a box big enough to put it in so I could take it to USPS, UPS, and FedEx to see how much it would cost to ship it but ended up holding onto it until my mom came to visit in December. She took it back with her and gave it to my sister on Christmas. My mom did a FaceTime with me when she opened it and I reminded her that it wasn't Christmas present just a gift because and she loved it. When she saw ALL the words on the blanket she looked at my youngest nephew and said he couldn't steal it for himself.
In total I worked on this blanket for about 35 days and kind of off and on all day long each of those days. There were probably some days that I didn't work on it but really I was so excited that I just couldn't stop working on it! I loved the process and I know she loves it and that's all that really matters!
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