While I was getting my post on the giant granny square blanket ready, I realized that I never got around to posting photos of Edith’s crocheted chevron blanket. This one has been done for quite a while, I can’t remember exactly but I *think* that I finished it up sometime last year. It’s really been a blur! I started this one when she was a baby and chevrons were THE hot thing. Now they’re a little past the peak of stylishness but I still love her blanket.
I used a super simple ripple afghan pattern that I found on ravelry and my favorite part was choosing the colors of yarn. Back when I first started the blanket, we were living in our old house and Edith’s room was a pale buttery yellow. I knew that I wanted to use that and that I also wanted to mix in some bright colors to keep it from being too baby pastel. I wanted it to be a blanket she could grow into. She had an arrangement of photos in bright blue frames so I pulled in a similar blue yarn and also picked up a few of the colors from her rug and striped changing mat as well.
Now we’ve moved and she has a peachy orange room instead of a yellow one (I replicated the mural I’d painted in case you were wondering) and she doesn’t really use her changing mat anymore (potty training, yikes!). Being older and much more opinionated than she was as a baby, Edith has also now vetoed her pretty pink simple sheets in favor of some Winnie the Pooh ones, but oh well, at least the blanket still goes with her rug.
I didn’t set out a repeating pattern (or any sort of a pattern) before starting work on this project, the only thing that I decided on in advance was that there would be less blue than any of the other colors. I just sort of added in stripes willy-nilly as I was going along, I thought it would give a more spontaneous look to the blanket (the variations in thickness are random as well) but in reality I just drove myself crazy over-analyzing which color should come next when it came time to switch yarns. If I had it to do over I would probably pre-plan the stripes.
The blanket is big enough to completely cover the whole mattress in her crib (which she is also very soon to outgrow) and she gets tucked in with it every night. I love the projects that end up being put to daily use. They’re always so much more satisfying than the ones that are just for show. Just look at that sweet face… snug as a bug in a rug. Or hand crocheted chevron baby blanket. You know…
If you clicked over on the link to the inspiration blanket and pattern you might have noticed that the colors aren’t exactly the same. I just couldn’t quite get on board with the $1,000 price tag that would come along with purchasing all of that (albeit beautiful) Purl Soho merino, especially knowing that with three small kids and a dog this blanket is destined for some pretty rough treatment. Instead I made this out of some soft but decidedly less fancy acrylic yarn. I had moments where I wondered whether putting all this effort into a blanket that was made with less than top-notch materials was a silly endeavor but in the end I know it makes more sense for us right now at this stage in our lives. Since I wasn’t using the Purl Soho yarn, I had to kind of wing it on the color selection. I knew that I wanted to keep the spirit of the original pattern – I love the unexpected combination of the brights with the pastel blue and navy so I just took that idea and ran with it. I also decided to start with a smaller square of white in the middle and I’m happy with how that turned out as well.
The best part about making this blanket is that it’s such a simple pattern you can almost work on it in your sleep, and you can definitely work on it with one eye on Downton Abbey. The middle part of it also worked up deceptively fast, so after just a few nights I could warm myself up with it while I crocheted. Once I got to the last few colors, each stripe round would take me at least two hours (I am not the world’s fastest crocheter) and I had myself convinced that I might never finish. Luckily some much needed rains blew in to California in the last few weeks and being trapped inside hunkering down from the storm turned out to be exactly what I needed to finish up my project. 
The blanket is definitely going to reside in our living room but I had to spread it out on the bed for just one shot so that you could see the whole thing in its giant granny square glory. Isn’t she a beaut? I love her so! 
Permanent Riot 