Frantic doesn’t begin to describe my mental state while trying to finish this blanket. But before I dive too deep into the final stages of completing this blanket, let me start from the beginning…
About 6 months ago I had an idea for a baby blanket based on the growing “woodland nursery” theme popping up all over Pinterest and Instagram. The idea was to have black trees embroider crocheted on a white background. The blanket design came quickly, and I was able to create it in just a couple weeks.
I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but something was missing and so the blanket sat in this state. And sat. And sat some more.
After months of no further work or progress, I decided to do the most logical thing (insert sarcasm) and work on a throw sized version of the blanket in the hopes that making a larger version of the same thing would magically break my mental block. The only snag was that my family was going to be going on vacation for a long weekend to the Smokey Mountains. Thankfully my husband doesn’t (often) complain when I bring WIP projects on vacation.
After seeing the cabin where we were staying for the weekend, I knew I needed to take pictures of at least the baby blanket while I had such a beautiful backdrop.
After taking these shots, I was at a cross roads. Do I try and crank out the throw size over the weekend so I can have consistent pictures for the final written pattern, or do I dejectedly say to myself “well, it would have been nice if the throw size had been ready to take pictures in time.” The decision was easy to make. It was time to kick into high gear and crank out a throw sized blanket!! But shoot! Did I bring enough yarn with me??
I’m often guilty of finishing new designs, taking pictures for the pattern, and then unraveling the entire thing to reuse the yarn for something else. This was no special case, so I enlisted the help of my husband and two young boys to unravel and rewind the baby blanket yarn, so I could use it for the throw. The yarn gods smiled down on me that weekend, and I somehow managed to have just enough yarn to complete the larger sized blanket. Phew!
I was feeling so proud of myself at this point. Not only was I able to get beautiful shots of the baby blanket with my daughter actually smiling (gasp!), but the throw blanket came together in time for the sunlight to be adequate for a quick photo shoot the next day. After helping me take pictures, I asked my husband, “so what do you think of the bigger blanket?” To which he responded, “I don’t know. Looks kind of like an 8 of spades card to me.” Say what?!? All my hard work and he says it looks like a card?? Ugh. Not the response I was looking for. Yet again, I found myself at a crossroads. Should I keep the blankets as is, or stay up late and make pom poms to add as accents on the top and bottom of the throw? That might solve the “8 of spades” look, but either way the baby blanket was no more so I would only be able to get shots of the larger throw with pom poms. Yet again, no contest on what to choose. Knowing myself I would rather lose a little sleep and be satisfied with a design than leave a detail unfinished. So I stayed up late and woke up extra early to make and attach twelve pom poms. I’m so glad I did, and love the final look of the blanket!!
