Ends and no beginnings!

My Attic24 Harmony blanket is finished! I cannot begin to tell you just how much pleasure it gave me to make it. The rhythmical motion of hook against yarn and the beautiful colour palette have really helped me get through the last few pretty stressful weeks. I had always loved this blanket from the very first time I saw it on Lucy's blog. But I was put off making it because it was made of squares and each round of each square was a different colour. On previous crochet projects, I haven't been very good have been absolutely awful about dealing with the ends as I've gone along, and believe me, there is nothing more tedious than having a gazillion ends to sew in once all the crochet is done and all you want to do is snuggle under said blanket. So when I started work on this one, I followed Lucy's very wise words and sewed in the ends as I went along. It actually was no trouble at all to do this and I wondered why I've found it so difficult to do so in the past. After hooking the last round of the border and sewing in those two ends, my blanket was done and ready to show off! And it is a beauty, there's no denying it. If you'd like to find out more about the pattern, you can find details on Lucy's blog here and buy a yarn pack from here if you're inspired to make one of your own. I took a couple of photos the evening it was finished but the light wasn't too great.

The next day I took it outside and spread it on the bench at the bottom of the garden. It was a perfect, sunny, autumnal day. The kind that brings a smile to your face. I don't even mind it being cold if it's bright. I just stood there admiring the sheer gorgeousness of the blanket. It really does live up to its name, Harmony. 

Naturally a blanket photoshoot wouldn't be complete without Flo! Despite her attempts to ignore the blanket during its making, she couldn't resist posing alongside it.

I told her not to get too attached to the blanket as it wasn't going to live at our house. While I was making it, I decided to give it to my friend Julia - she has admired it in its various stages of making. Julia has been such a good friend and has come with me to every single hospital appointment - and there have been nearly 20 since the beginning of August. That's an enormous amount of her time given up for me without any hesitation, so I wanted to thank her by giving her back some of my time too. She was delighted with the blanket and sent me this photo of it on her bed. I'm so pleased that it's going to be used and loved.

So what am I up to now? I'm itching to start some new projects but I'm being very strict with myself and have a list of WIPs, some of which have been hanging around for way too long. And two of them are crochet projects that just need the ends sewing in. One is my Midnight Companion blanket that I started soon after Mr JK died and I was unable to sleep. I actually finished the blanket about a year ago, bar the ends. I'd even considered going with the fringed effect and leaving them! But I'm going to get them woven in and my aim is to show you the finished blanket next week. As long as Flo doesn't want to spend too much time on my lap, that is! 

I also have my Granny square cushion made from the (ahem!) 2016 Opal sock yarn Advent calendar which also needs the ends sewing in before the cushion can be put together. Again, I tried to convince myself that it wouldn't matter if I left the ends, but I know that I'd be able to spot them poking out to taunt me! So I'm going to work on that this week too and hopefully then be able to put these two long-standing WIP's to bed. What's the oldest WIP that you have lurking? Time to confess all to me! You're amongst friends! xxx