This blanket was started over a year ago, not long after I learned that my best friend was pregnant with her first baby. I really wanted to make a blanket that would match the decor of the baby’s room, so I was sure to do some reconnaissance during my first tour of the baby’s new room. I settled on a red, purple, and ivory color scheme, which worked with the room, and would allow me to use some yarn from my stash. I used Bernat Satin Yarn in Crimson, Vanna’s Choice Yarn in Purple, and Bernat Super Value in Natural. (I then had to buy more yarn to match the stash yarn, and ended up with the same yarn leftover that I was trying to use up!) I started researching patterns, and I came across the Maybelle Square Crochet Pattern by My Rose Valley, and fell in love with the simple, almost whimsical flower design.
It was slow going at first, as I started out by finishing a whole square, doing another whole square, etc, which made it difficult to memorize the pattern and make things go faster. I then started doing the rows in stages, so I did all of the inner red circles for all of the squares, then all of the petal portion, then the purple square section, and then the cream boarder. This helped me to memorize each step, and made the process go much faster. I made my squares a bit larger than the pattern by adding a row of dc ivory at the end. For this round, instead of using the same 2 dc, ch 2, 2dc in the corner of the previous row, I wish I would have done 4 dc. This would have made the sewing of the squares much easier and neater. I used the Invisible Seam (Reverse Mattress Stitch) by WoolnHook to sew the squares together, I added a row of dc purple around the whole blanket, and I used a shell edging similar to the Shell Edging on Craftsy to finish.
As time kept creeping on, I decided it would have to be a 1st birthday present instead of a new baby present. In all, I ended up working on this blanket on and off for over a year, between working full time and going to grad school. This was my first “square” blanket of any kind, and while it was a little arduous, I do like the finished product. It is definitely not perfect; not all of the squares ended up with the same number of ivory dc, some of the rounds I crocheted on backwards, so the right side of the stitch ended up facing the wrong side of the square, and I definitely sewed some of them together too tightly, which warped the lines a bit. But taken as a whole (and not inspecting it too closely, lol) it turned out just as I had imagined. I finally gifted it to the birthday girl this past weekend, and the collective “awwwwww” of approval as it was opened was definitely worth the time and effort!
Nerdy Girl Crochet 