You know when you have some yarn in your stash that you really want to use up, but never seem to hit on the right project? That’s how this story starts. I bought a load of yarn while I was in Amsterdam a few years ago with a particular pattern in mind, but then went off the pattern (hey, it happens). I then decided I’d use it for weaving, but that didn’t turn out so well. Then I decided to try out a new knitting stitch, and whilst that was a success it didn’t feel quite right.
Then I came across a pattern by KnotSewCute that sparked my imagination: their night owl decorative throw. It really appealed to me, mainly because of the owls, so I bought the pattern. I looked at it again once I’d downloaded it and thought “actually, there’s not enough owl here” … and then started to think a bit harder about the whole thing.
You see, a blanket is a big project. It’s a hell of a commitment in terms of time and yarn, and thus not something to be undertaken lightly. So I decided to tweak the pattern a bit. I crocheted the a shortened version of the first section (a sort of basketweave) and half of the owl section, and here’s how it looked:
Not bad, eh? I still had some issues with this though: firstly it was still a lot of that basketweave (which is nice, but I wanted it to be all about the owls), and secondly it wasn’t wide enough.
That’s 72 centimetres, not inches – nowhere near wide enough for my liking (I do prefer a nice wide blanket). So I frogged the lot and went back to the drawing board. I ended up tweaking the width so that there’d be eight owls across rather than just five, and decided to get rid of the basketweave entirely as I now knew that I wanted to make strips of owls and then sew them together at the end to make a blanket. Over the years I’ve come to the realisation that projects which can be done in small pieces suit me much better than things which have to be made all in one go. I like the sense of completion from finishing one section of something, and it also makes projects a lot more portable.
So, with the pattern adjusted I set forth with my crochet hook once more and here’s how it turned out…
I edged the finished strip with one round of double crochet, and it’s now folded up neatly and can wait in my project bag until I’ve made some more strips. Once I’ve got enough for a blanket I’ll join them together (and possibly add a border around the whole shebang). I’m chuffed to bits with the modified pattern, and also feeling pleased that I’ve tried (and mastered) crochet cabling.
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