Started three Sundays ago, I sewed in the last end of the Spice of Life blanket on Saturday night.

I didn’t know where this blanket would end up for the first few days of making. Then all of a sudden I knew it would make a great birthday present for my Nanna and Grandad. They both had their 90th birthdays in January and on Sunday we had a lovely family birthday party.

Stylecraft Special DK is the yarn. I loved the Spice of Life Rico colours that you can buy as a pack for making the blanket but I couldn’t justify spending any more money on yarny things when I had loads stashed away already. I only needed to buy a couple of balls to make up the colour palette, which consisted of: Cloud blue, Storm blue, Cream, Lemon, Mocha, Lipstick, Emperor, Fondant, Shrimp, Kelly Green, Lobelia, Petrol and Spring Green.

I looked at the original Spice of Life blanket and matched the colours as closely as I could. My eyes tell me that the Stylecraft colours are a lot more vivd and bright than the Rico stuff (not that I’ve seen the Rico in real life). I downloaded the pattern from Ravelry via Cherry Heart (one of my favourite blogs) and off I went. I went wrong a couple of times and had to do some unravelling. There were a couple of other mistakes I made without undoing it. I am hoping that they go unnoticed.

I had to crochet in the car on the way to Southampton (about 2 hours from home). And I added the final row of the border at my mum’s house. I tried several times to get a good photo of the finished blanket but the weather was grey to the extreme. Rainy, cloudy skies and one hundred year old windows did not help.

I put the pictures in a collage rather than spread the dismal grey. The blanket is actually one of the brightest I’ve ever made. I’m glad it was for a present for some old people, their eyes are rubbish.

Above is a painting of my hands as they sew in the ends of the blanket last Friday. My artist friend is painting my portrait! I’m finding the process lots of fun. I’ve said she can paint me any way she wants. Unfortunately, that means she wants me to take my clothes off. That certainly isn’t going to happen in February. Too cold. Anyway, more about that another day.

This week I’m trying out some very basic knitting next. Hone my skills and all that.