Mosaic Crochet: Tom’s Blanket

Finished at last!

This Mosaic Blanket for my nephew Tom has been a long time in the making, but I finished it just in time for it to be a house warming present for him as he moves into his new flat this week. The pattern is Santa Cruz by Daisy Knots

I have made it once before for another nephew.

You might remember  I started making this one when I went on a 2 week retreat in December 2020, and this is how it looked after 2 weeks of pretty solid crocheting

I am often asked how long crochet takes and this is very hard to answer. Each pattern has its own timescale and I often crochet whilst doing other things. I also have several projects on the go at all times.

In this case it was a satisfying pattern to make, but required concentration and I made so many mistakes that I spent a long time unpicking and re-doing.

One way to attempt to answer the question of how long does it take is that I timed one row and it took

Another question I am often asked, is ‘do I sell my blankets’.

NO!

I love making them as gifts, but just as it feels very uncomfortable to me to time what I make, as so much more than time goes into them – it would be impossible for me to put a price on the blankets and throws.

I had to leave this project for long periods of time during the making of it, to give myself a break.

When I asked Tom what colours he wanted he didn’t know so I offered a choice of Black, Grey, White, Red which would tie in with the colours of his favourite football team or these in  Stylecraft Special Aran: Mustard Gold, Silver, Black, Copper and Cream

He went for this colour combo

There is a lot of Back Loop/Front Loop crochet to make the pattern.

Each row uses a new piece of yarn so each row has two ends that have to be dealt with somehow. This pattern creates a pocket on the edging to house the ends.

I didn’t feel happy with just pulling the yarn through a stitch and leaving it like that, so I tied reef knots in twos along the edge after I had crocheted the edge.

I also made a wider border than the pattern and only crocheted the piece at the back to cover the ends, to go about half way up the border – maybe this was a mistake.

If anyone else has any ideas about how to deal with the masses of ends in mosaic crochet, I’d love to hear them.

The ends inside the pocket did create a bump. In the pattern they are cut to just about an inch long, but I didn’t feel happy about that, so I left mine much longer.

The photos of the finished article were taken at West Dean College

Oh My! what a beautiful place it is. I have recently been on a couple of residential painting courses there and knew that it would be just the right backdrop for the blanket.This was my bedroom! What glorious luxury for a few nights.

And Tom is thrilled with his blanketwell it is very soft and snuggly!