Stash Busting Pet Blanket

I would like to start of by apologising for been AWOL for most of this year. I have still been crocheting and knitting but its been a strange year. The loss of my friend back in February knocked me for six, my girls growing up too fast and the eldest leaving home for University, discovering a love for caravanning plus lots of other reasons have made 2016 a bit of a strange year, some of it happy but a lot of it sad.  I have felt like I was drowning  in lots of things I wanted to do but neither had the energy or motivation to do so.  My office work space has turned into a shed and I have moved boxes from here to there and back again about 3 times. I have discovered a new love along the way too in Jamberry nail wraps, but more about that later.

So I have made a decision to sort myself out and start 2017 in a positive frame of mind. Strangely enough the Christmas holidays have made me realise how bad things had gotten. I started going to my local Slimming World back at the beginning of October and so far I have lost 1.5 stone (21 lbs) with a long way to go to get to my target weight, but over the Christmas holidays I slipped back into my old habits which made me feel rubbish about myself and sitting here in my (shed) over the last few days has made my mind up for me. It is time to sort out my work space and divide it into my loves of crochet & Jamberry. Slimming World has given my a confidence that I didn't know I had and I have gone from feeling positive to negative over the holidays. Today is the start of all things positive for me and that's the way I intend to keep it.

As things are, right this minute I can't find anything in my (shed) and I want to be able to just go to what I need when I need it. I thought about making it my New Year's resolution but decided that won't work for me, it never has before, so why label it and turn it into a chore. I started bullet journaling a few months ago and I didn't really think that I had that much to write about but I have nearly finished my 1st journal and it is helping me get organised and ready for a new me.  I am working on various new crochet patterns and trying to organise my future with Jamberry.  The idea of this blog was to share with you my followers what I was up to and I haven't, but I have decided that I need you all to help me with my journey through 2017 and beyond. I never thought that anyone would be interested in my ramblings but you all seem to love my crochet patterns and I do have 70,000 kg of stash, so lots of patterns to come. I have made a decision to buy NO more yarn until 2018. Now that is a New Year's Resolution. My 1st offering is a fab stash buster, you all know that I have a few pets and I have a local PDSA pet hospital who always need blankets etc, so I thought lets stash bust a few pet blankets.  I thought granny squares, super easy but not quite what I wanted, then I thought round, lets make round simple blankets which are surprisingly quick to complete.

I started by sorting out my oddments into yarn weights, when I had a number of DK yarn balls, using my trusty winder I set about winding them into one ball. I needed approximately  100g for my blanket, when I had enough I wound them all into one ball and picked up my 4mm hook.

I started with a ch2, then 12tr's into the 1t chain.

Next row: 2tr's in each stitch to leave you with 24 sts.

Next row: work 2tr's in next st, 1tr in next stitch continue to the end to leave you with 36 sts.

Next row: work 2tr's in next st, 1tr in each of the next 2 sts,  should leave you with 48 sts.

You basically continue increasing by 12 sts each row.

I continued until my ball was coming to an end, I ended up with 22 rows using 96g. The completed blanket measures 21" which is perfect for a cat or small dog. Here is Cody modelling her new blanket. She preferred to be under the blanket rather than on top.

All that is left me to say today is Happy New Year to all of you and your families. I hope 2017 is a fantastic year for all!