missy42's Johnny's Tattoo Blanket (original) (raw)

May 21, 2009 So every Christmas, we do a gift exchange with my mom’s side of the family. Typically, we post our wish lists on the family website, and whoever pulled our name can go on and figure out what to get us. Unfortunately, my Aunt misplaced the master list of “secret Santa’s” and most people had forgotten who they had pulled in the drawing. So most people got gift certificates to random chain stores (Best Buy, Starbucks, Borders, whathaveyou).

I, on the other hand, remembered exactly who I pulled out of the hat: my cousin Johnny. Who didn’t post his wish list. So, I gave him a card explaining that I had no idea what to get him, and offered to either (a) get him a gift of his choice within the price range or (b) make him an afghan.

He chose the afghan.

His mom (my cousin Shirley) emailed me a while back to let me know and to discuss colours Johnny would like. I told Shirley that for some reason, I was feeling gray and blue for Johnny - maybe some green. I think it’s because it would match his tattoos. She said she’d check with him. Sure enough, he asked for a charcoal gray and a lavender-ish blue.

It’ll be a ripple/chevron blanket - nothing too flower-y or frilly for Johhny. Right now, I’m just working with various swatches, trying to decide on a colour scheme I like. I tried just straight stripes on a smaller hook first. But as it turns out, I am enjoying the marbled look of holding the two colour together and working it up with the Q-hook (the picture looks like crap, but it’s much better in person, believe me). My mom pointed out that the cheveron pattern kinda gets lost in it, though, so I’m throwing in some solid stripes in there to make the ripples/chevrons more definitive.

August 11, 2009 Now that I’m done with some of my more pressing “time-sensitive” projects, I’ve come back to this one. Decided on colour-scheme: four rows of “marble,” one row of solid black, two rows of solid blue, one row of solid black, then four rows of “marble” & repeat from first row of solid black.

The Q-hook is a little more difficult to maneuver than I had anticipated. Maybe after I’ve worked on this one for a little longer, I’ll get used to it. Now, to frog the “swatches” and get to work!

September 4, 2009 I’M MISSING A SKEIN OF DELFT!!!

September 27, 2009 Found my missing skein (which I think was actually the Edwardian?) but I still needed to get a few more skeins of yarn. Got them last week at Michael’s when they went on sale. Using the Q-hook and two strands of yarn means it goes really fast, but it also means it’s warm and it’s been hot out lately. When it is cool enough to work on, I’ve been plowing away at this and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger…

December 19, 2009 Finished crocheting it last night. Woke up this morning with my wrists and forearms aching like I had been lifting weights. Finished weaving in all the ends earlier today. Stuffed it in a bag with with some some tissue paper. Performed small surgery on the bag, which had begun to tear due to the sheer weight of the blanket. Threw it in the car. Lugged it under the tree at my cousins’ place where we had the annual family Christmas party his year. And finally, it was given to Johnny earlier this evening.

It was a big hit. I even got a commission from another cousin before the night was over to make one for him. Woo-hoo!

♥