Finally ~ the gift blanket!

I've felt like that three times already in recent months, and blanket number four will soon be finished too ~ it's a good feeling to have 👏 

As I mentioned back in November, I bought this selection of yarns from Wool Warehouse as I didn't have the colours I wanted to use in my stash.  I know, right ~ looking at the size of said stash it hardly seems possible, does it 😄

All the time I was plodding away on the using-up-the-oddments blankets, these zingy bags of colour were calling my name!  I was very good, though, and just carried on.....not least because I already have three or four WIPs lurking in the guest bedroom patiently awaiting my attention😏

Finally, though, I was able to make a start on the gift blanket and as you can see, once again I used my tried-and-tested favourite chevron pattern from The Gentle Art of Knitting by Jane Brocket.  Whilst I kept the length the same as in the pattern, I made it almost half as wide again ~ it really is a very large blanket!  And trust me, it started to get a tad cumbersome to manoeuvre by the time I was about two-thirds of the way through ~ mind you, it did keep me nice and cosy so that was a welcome bonus 😉

As you can see I used a lot of different colours in this blanket, 20 altogether.  I wanted to create something reminiscent of the myriad shades of autumn leaves.  I am pretty pleased with how it's turned out ~ I think the the colour scheme has a somewhat art deco-ish look to it.  I used Stylecraft Special DK, my usual go-to yarn for blankets; it's ideal as it's soft, machine washable and hardwearing, everything you want in a blanket really.

The colours I used for the chevron stripes are: Jaffa, Saffron, Gingerbread, Walnut, Dandelion, Dark Brown, Spice, Bottle, Mustard, Copper, Sunshine, Khaki, Tomato, Meadow, Gold, Green, Clementine, Grass Green, and Greengage.  To finish off, the simple border was my usual three rows of half treble crochet (US half double crochet) for which I used the shade Camel.

I made it as a gift for my very dear friend, Olive, who I only get to see a couple of times a year now that we've moved up here ~ she seemed very pleased with it, thankfully!  Hopefully it will remind her that I still cherish our friendship, even though we no longer live across the road from each other 😊