A Christmas blanket pattern. I thought the trees looked pretty and bought the yarn on impulse to make this in October 2016. Now Bonnie Barker (the designer) is going to do a CAL for this blanket starting on October 22, 2018 so it was meant to be, finally.
Pattern calls for 3328 yds for just the throw (768 yds for the pillow). Hopefully I’ll have enough to do both.
October 26, 2018
Done with Part 1, the first 13 rows! I just noticed that Bonnie has released video 2 already (it’s only Friday), the first was released Monday. No way I can start on it because I’ve got this week’s Havana CAL section to do (amongst other goals).
I’m doing four blankets from three CALs simultaneously (Stitch Story, Havana x 2, and Yule Tree), along with other smaller projects. Maybe I’m too ambitious? Especially since winter weather seems to have arrived early and my daughter just requested a new scarf for herself and one for a friend. (Which made me happy.) I’m a little behind this week because I’ve gotten a bit obsessed with another hobby project (unrelated to crochet), but that’s coming along great too! So many hobbies, so little time. LOL
January 9, 2019
Kind of annoyed with myself. After I uploaded the photo, I noticed I had made a mistake about 14 rows back! On the same row, I messed up the final wheat stitch cable on both sides of the tree panel. Sigh. Too far to rip back -- am I brave enough to do crochet surgery?!
Going forward, I’ll definitely be better about doing a visual inspection at the end of each cable part on the right-side rows.
This pattern is certainly a yarn eater but I love how thick and squishy the fabric is!
January 14, 2019
I’m on row 41 of 122, so that’s roughly 1/3 of the way through this project. I started with 20 skeins of yarn and I have 14.5 left, so that means I’ll have plenty to finish it (but not enough to do the matching pillow unless I back it with fabric).
January 15, 2019
Finished through row 51, the second tree, which is the end of video 3 in Bonnie’s tutorials (though I stopped watching them after the first few rows of the “branches” of the first tree when I got the general idea).
This pattern is marked as Advanced by Red Heart, but I think really that’s because it’s so easy to cross the cable the wrong way. If you’re thinking of trying this, I wouldn’t be intimidated by the rating. The only slightly hard thing, besides paying attention to crossing the cables the right way to maintain the pattern, is working behind the fptr stitches to reach the two skipped stitches in the cable section, but that just takes a little practice.
January 27, 2019
I finished the third tree section this morning (after working on it on and off all week). Two more to go, then the top ribbing!
February 7, 2019
All done! I really like how this came out, it is really cuddly, and the color has grown on me.