The 4 Year Blanket

Four years ago I started learning to crochet. I thought the bet approach would be to learn one of the stitches and then repeat it fifty million times to ensure I understood it, before moving on to learning the next stitch (I was wrong. So very wrong.) For my first project I decided to make a blanket for Gaia.

Gaia was four years old and had no interest in moving out of the big family bed into her own bed. I thought making her a single bed sized blanket might make the transition more appealing. She moved into her bunk bed three years before I finished her blanket, LOL. Gaia selected some balls of yarn and left the rest to me. I bought my first set of hooks, borrowed two 'how to crochet' books from the local library and set to work.

What I did not realise at the time was that there are two different crochet "languages". Stitches in American crochet have different names from stitches in British crochet. And this was how I invented an insane stitch that is something between a British single and American double stitch. This is partly why it took four years to finish Gaia's blanket. It didn't take long for me to master one stitch and move on to the next and before long I was working on a number of different projects and the blanket had become tedious. Then when I did return to the blanket, more experienced, I realised the stitch it was made from doesn't exist LOL. I had to figure out how to recreate the crazy stitch (or "Sazz stitch") or unravel months worth of work. I decided to forge on with the unique stitch...but now that I knew how to crochet, it was hard to make my hands and my brain do the wrong thing over and over.

As I neared the end of the project I realised that the edges were very uneven and hoped a border would make it look more respectable. The finished project is FAR from perfect, but it is filled with love and I'm rather proud that I kept at it despite the flaws and the years it took (and I'm impressed with my girl for maintaining her faith and enthusiasm for the project despite the long wait!).

The woman who started making this blanket was a mother of two in her 20s, she was addicted to soft drink and chocolate, working on a masters degree (which, unlike the blanket, did not have the good fortune to be completed) and she was working as a doula. She could not have imagined the woman who weaved in the ends of the lilac border. A woman in her 30s, mother of four, sugar free yoga enthusiast, and student midwife. I remember the period in my life when I took up crochet as being particularly tumultuous. I like to imagine I can reach back through time by stroking her hobbled stitches and reassure the lost young woman that she was on the right track. With each passing stitch she grew a little more self-accepting and wise. As the blanket grew, so did her family and her circle of friends. The blanket is full of history, as well as love.

I finished in the late hours of Saturday night, while on Face Time with a friend. In the time it took me to make this blanket my friend and I had been through many life-changing moments as well, including the birth of my third child, for which she was present. On Sunday Gaia came home from a morning swim and before I'd finished telling her what had happened while she was asleep the night before, she spied the folded fabric on my desk and guessed.
"YOU FINISHED MY BLANKET!" she squealed with such heartwarming delight.

Totally worth the wait

She is completely in love with her blanket. She loves the border most of all, she said "I thought you meant you were just going to do a boring line around the edge, not something flowery like this!" I'm relieved her taste in colours hasn't changed over the past four years ;)

Now the blanket has become part of Gaia's evening. When I told her I was feeling a bit lost now that this epic project was put to rest, Gaia replied:
"Time for Yemaya's."