Slow crochet - a Loop giveaway

When I learned to crochet some three years ago I dreamed of blankets-huge ones to swaddle myself in and fall asleep under on a cold winter's afternoon,blankets I had made myself over many months and that one day I would perhaps give to my daughters when they left home: woolly heirlooms.

My first projects were modest and small: a coaster or two and a simple cowl for my smallest daughter. As my confidence grew I made the ubiquitous south bay shawlette and a baby guinea pig designed by Kati Galusz who starred in her own Vine and whom I named Delia Sniff. I was nearly defeated by Delia's amigurumi sit-me-down but I hooked on.

The idea of a blanket rumbled and simmered. I feared my craft attention span may be too short to complete such a long term, large crochet project. I worried I may begin with good intentions and abandon the woolly ship when it was no bigger than a placemat - that it might languish forlornly under some new shiny woolliness.

To guard against the risk of technical trickiness cooling my blanketty fire I decided upon a single  enormous Granny square: simple, reassuring and, hopefully big enough for a 5' 11" woman to nestle beneath. Then came the yarn decision. As my initial enthusiam waned I needed a backup factor to replace it. I reasoned that if my yarn with thick and voluptuous then my blanket would grow quickly and the excitement of seeing it expand with each row would prevent tragic blanket neglect.

Oh Loop how do I love thee, let me count the ways...

I had a meeting in London and found myself in Camden passage. Loop, arguably London's most beautiful yarn shop beckoned. Oh though, the yarn-filled shelves held almost too much choice. I plunged my hand into cube after cube of delicious fibres. I gathered my thoughts and focussed on the chunky options. The jewel-like shades and gossamer softness of Misti alpaca handpaint were hard to ignore. I stroked skein after skein in the colours of bluebells, faberge eggs, wintry lakes and then I spotted 'sky grey', like a watercolour of a Norfolk beach. Two skeins of this exquisitely soft, painterly yarn came home with me.
                 

The granny square began to grow quickly and my fear of stitchy boredom was unfounded as the colour of the yarn shifted subtly with each stitch, from white, through aquamarine, cyan, grey and mossy green and back to white again. I hared through those first two skeins and my outsized granny square came to a halt. I yearned for more but decided to draw out the delicious process of making this blanket. Have you ever done this? It's the delay of woolly pleasure - luxuriating in the lovely process of hand making an object. I asked for a skein or two at Christmas and birthdays. I would buy one as a treat when we went on holiday, returning to Loop each time I was in London. The blanket grew steadily and I savoured every handpainted stitch.

I've been adding to my blanket for over a year and is not yet done. This may seem strange - there is usually guilt associated with unfinished objects but for me the end of yarn trailing from it holds the promise of more making joy, more beautiful stitches in the colours of sea and sky and rock. In fact despite the prospect of a deliciously thick, kitten-soft textile to swaddle myself in once it's done, I'll mourn the completion of this blanket slightly - I'll miss the sight of the yarn being looped steadily into clusters and each cluster into smallish duckegg blue bricks in the wall of the granny square. I'll miss each movement of my hook and each time I wind a skein around my thumb to make an exquisitely soft egg-like ball of yarn. Each small step of this project has been a sensory joy.

Loop's delicious interior

I'm utterly thrilled that Susan from Loop has offered a voucher for me to giveaway. £25 is a yarny spree, a skein of Misti alpaca and a beautiful crochet hook, a chance to visit this divine shop, either online or in person and dawdle over its beautiful shelves, knowing that you can skip off to checkout  with glee carrying a real or virtual basket of soft goodness. You may enter below in four different ways (I know!) and the giveaway will be open until next Friday, 25th September when the clever Rafflecopter shenanigans will choose a woolly winner.

Best of all yarny luck...

a Rafflecopter giveaway