Weaving in ends

Oops! I don't seem to have posted here for a whole year! Must try harder in 2017. Recently, smallest granddaughter requested a blanket for her favourite doll. I thought I'd make a smaller version of the one I made for her when she was a baby and I've just finished crocheting all the squares. I've joined them using the join-as-you-go method, but whichever method I used, there would still have been an awful lot of loose ends! This is the snag of doing multi-coloured crochet or making items from squares or other motifs. See what I mean? You often see people saying that you should weave them in as you go along, but here's why I don't. For Christmas 2015, I decided to crochet some Christmas stockings for the grandchildren. The idea was that they would have money for their main present but I would give them some sweets and small toys in a stocking so they would have something to open and enjoy on Christmas day. I embarked on the three stockings, but after getting this far, I realised that they were coming out far too big. See all those ends?! Now, if I'd woven them in as I went, I would have just have had to throw those part finished stockings away because when I weave in an end, it stays weaved! I know that from bitter experience. A few years ago I was trying to make something out of African flower motifs and I'd followed the advice to weave in ends as soon as I finished and joined each motif. Unfortunately, I eventually realised that I didn't like the way the project was working out and I decided to frog it and rescue the yarn to use for something else. It was a complete pain trying to find and unpick the ends and I wasted quite a lot of yarn. This time, however, the unravelling was easy and the yarn, along with other random bits from my stash, ended up as small tea cosies which I use every day.   To be honest, I don't find it too bad tidying up the ends all in one go. I usually find an interesting drama on the BBC iPlayer and once you get into it, end-weaving can be quite relaxing. Here are the three small Christmas stockings I made. It was quite easy to modify the original pattern to make them smaller.
I did finish one large one. Here it is for comparison. It would have taken an awful lot of chocolate and treats to fill it and my son and daughter would not have been pleased if I'd given their children so much sweet stuff!

Sudden changes

I have sadly neglected my crochet blog because life has suddenly taken off in an unexpected direction. I was doing so little online tutoring work that I had more or less decided to consider myself retired and I was focusing on the crochet to give me a new purpose in life.

Well... Completely out of the blue, I was offered 9 hours teaching at the local college. Fortunately it's less then 10 minutes walk away -- I don't think I could cope with a long commute these days! -- but even so, it's tiring to be teaching face-to-face again after so much tutoring at a distance. I'm loving it though. It's a challenge because I've never taught these particular courses before, so whilst the subject matter is fine, some of it is a bit rusty and I also need to get to grips with the exam rules and regulations, not to mention all the admin systems. But things are starting to calm down now I'm nearing the end of my second week. Some of the initial learning curve is behind me. I have students! I have a code to use the photocopiers, I know where my classrooms are, I have access to Moodle (the online place where you put course resources). From now on I can focus on planning and delivering lessons... and I finally have time to think about crochet again.

Here is the mitred granny square blanket that I started at the beginning of the month. All the coloured squares are done and I'm in the process of using the granny Join As You Go method to attach the squares together as I crochet the white border. As I have all the ends to weave in as well, it's slow going, but it's wonderfully relaxing to sit listening to a radio play and crochet after a day working in academia.

Finally finished the baby blanket!

I have finally finished the blanket I was crocheting for our youngest grandchild. It was supposed to be a gift for when the baby was born, but I didn't manage to finish it until last weekend. I handed it over on Tuesday and our granddaughter seemed to like it. As she is now 11 months old (oops!), you can see that it took a lot longer than I intended.

The problem was, not only did crocheting the squares create a lot of ends to weave in, but every stage after that created what felt like another 9 million ends. :( There was joining the squares together. There were the ears to put on, and the mouths to crochet and the eyes to embroider.

The other reason it took a long time was that it's the project that got me back into crocheting. My skills were rusty and I've probably speeded up now, more than twelve months on from when I started this.

In the photo below the completed blanket is on the left. Top right picture shows a close up of the funny faces after blocking. Bottom right shows the squares just after completing. You can see how much better the ears and faces look after being pulled into shape and gently steamed. However, I suspect that after the blanket has been thoroughly cuddled and sucked on, the ears are not going to stay flat for very long!

In case anyone is interested, here is the original pattern I used, which is a free download on Ravelry. As the blanket was going to be for a baby, I didn't add the bows shown on the Ravelry page. I also crocheted the ears directly onto the blanket, rather than making them separate and sewing them on. I don't trust my sewing not to come adrift. Also, I'm not as good at embroidering the features as the designer of the pattern, but I think they'll do. :)