02-08-2020

It is official. I am Done.
Whilst I entered into the Ravelry games thinger based around the other BiG Games on at this time that features that lovely daley dude knitter, I am officially disqualified.
People, I haven’t crocheted. I may have picked up a hook to fix a wayward yarn somewhere, but I am more than happy to pass on any glory/laurels/fame to others who need it right now.

I have already won a prize with this blanket, as I was determined to get it done for the local show, where the town population of around 1000 feverishly compete in such sections as biggest pumpkin, jar of apricot jam, best chicken, fruit cake cooked by a male, etc etc.
Even after several long sprints in getting said rug completed, I stayed up all night, buoyed by Tim Riggins abdominal muscles on frequent display, and decided to simply enter what I’d completed, stitching together the final hexes in the car ride to the show.

You could call it “pulling a Bradbury” - as the only person entering the Novice Crochet section, it was pretty hard to lose. First prize (award = $2, which may have covered the cost of the crochet hook from the op shop).

The story behind this blanket is that I was rather keen on picking up some Noro whilst in Japan in March 2020. I was in both Tokyo and Kyoto, so it can’t be that hard, right? Wrong. Instead of gallivanting around the world in 2020, I found myself in Sydney, in room for a fortnight twiddling my thumbs as one of the first to go through hotel quarantine. So, I made lemons out of lemonade, and figured I may as well blow that japanese souvenir cash on Noro. Little Knits in Seattle came to the rescue with hushed tones b.a.g. s.a.l.e.s. of Noro of which I had never heard of before.

Little Knits are bloody wonderful, and I remember having a rather lovely convo with the owner whilst being cooped up. Throw them yr love and money, and I hope they’re doing well during such trying times.

I do not recommend that you attempt to make a facsimile of this, but to merely go your own way with the yarns and crochet stitches that sing for you. I would like to thank mindless tv, particularly all the seasons of “Friday Night Lights” for getting me through this, as it’s been a very long haul. My math is probably way off, but around 30,000 stitches.

I did use all the Kagayaki yarn for this, but there’s the leftover taiyo from a sweater I made where I pulled every single skein apart and took out the colors (orange, and I think cerise/purple) and put them into this, which I’m guessing is around 4 skeins worth of the 10 skeins that I bought.

26-12-2020

A basic recipe to be messed with - my favourite hexes have been using scraps where I havent’ finished a round completely, and joined and continued randomly. You can do each round in a different color, and a hex in just one yarn, and everything in between, along with the ones using leftovers. It’s just meant to be a mindless, simple thing that requires no brain power, which sure worked for me. To join yarns, I just left a tail at the back and crocheted over it. A trick when finishing each round when I want to break yarn is that instead of bringing yarn to the front through the loop, do this:
I take the hook out of the final loop and take the hook to the back of the work where I want the loop/yarn to end. I then hook the loop from front to back, and bring the yarn through, breaking the yarn. The yarn can then be threaded through the back of the work for a simple seamless result as you go. (That sounds so hard, and wondering if someone else already has an image/youtube tutorial of this!).

HEX KINDA PATTERN: (you might like to ignore the below, and simply check out the lockdown blanket pattern, subtituting the stitches to what suits you, as I do not trust my own pattern writing at this point in time).

Chain 3 and join with a slip stitch (ss) to form a loop.

Round 1: ch2, 11dc into the loop, join with a ss to top of beg, ch 3 and break off yarn (12dc).


Round 2: join color B into same place, ch2 and work 1 dc in the same place, 2dc in back loop only in all sts, join with a ss to top of beg ch3 and break off yarn (24dc).


Round 3: join color c into any tea, ch2 and work 1 dc in same st, 1dc in next 3dc, 1dc, ch2, 1dc to create corner, repeat from in order to create 6 sides, ss, and break if you desire.
Round 4: join color into a corner, ch2, 1dc, 5dc before you reach the corner, 2dc, 1ch, 2dc. Repeat from to create yr 6 sided hex.

26-12-2020

inspo:
lockdown blanket: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/lockdown-blanket-2

26-07-2021

Tagged as laurelbrave as this is the largest crochet rug I’ve ever made. Bravery? Idiocy? I’ll let you decide