A Special Birthday Blanket

My mom turned 60 in November last year and I wanted to give her something really special for her special birthday. After  quite a bit of thought I decided that there was nothing that I could buy her that she needed or couldn't buy for herself, so instead I would make her something. My mom is also a crafter, so I knew that she would understand the time and effort (and of course love) that goes into a handmade project. After lots of Pinterest searching I came up with the idea of crocheting a blanket in some of her favourite colours. And here is the result:

I chose to use the crochet block, called the Solid Granny Square, which I learned to make earlier in the year at the Be-Inspired workshop I attended (read about it here). But Sarah-Jayne from BellaCoco also has a lovely video tutorial on how to make it Solid Granny Square Tutorial 

I used Stylecraft Special DK yarn and the colours I used are Khaki, Meadow, Walnut, Mocha, Copper, Spice and Cream. And I did the border and joined the squares using Parchment.

Below are rounds one and two:

Rounds three and four:

And round five:

And then I did a border around each square in Parchment: 

I decided to block my squares - not everyone does this, it's really up to you and it depends on your tension. I found it made my squares nice and even and made it much easier to join, plus it made a smarter looking finished product. After blocking my squares I arranged them (and re-arranged them) until I liked the design and then I joined them. The joining method I used was to crochet them together from the back. Heather from The Patchwork Heart has a great tutorial on this method of joining: Crochet Together from the Back by Heather from The Patchwork Heart. You can also crochet them from the front - it just depends on what look you prefer.

Once all the blocks were joined I did a border of trebles around the whole blanket also in Parchment almost like a big giant Solid Granny Square. Then I did a row of double crochet in Copper and finished it off with another row of Parchment, but this time a half treble crochet.

I was super happy with the way this blanket turned out and most important of all my mom loved it!

***All the crochet terms I use in this post are UK crochet terms***

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