"The Hall" - Crochet Baby Blanket

Anyone who follows me on Instagram or Twitter will know that I learned to crochet last year. Along the way I've made blankets for friends, snoods, scarves, hats, snowflakes, but it was all leading up to this. A blanket for my own baby.

The trouble was that blankets take an awfully long time, and despite trying to do some every evening, it was seeming like the baby would be here before the blanket was ready... Well, I'm pleased to announce that at 38 + 1, the blanket is finished and packed for hospital, and the baby is still firmly inside.

The blanket is shell stitch in 3 rotating colours. I used the same yarn I used to make "The Alexander" blanket, Cotton Soft by King Cole. The colours are oyster, jade and wine.

I make my blankets big, and this is far larger than a normal sized baby blanket. I have used around 2 balls in each colour for this one although that's approximate as all of the colours I had from making other things and I supplemented with new balls! The easiest tutorial I could find online for Shell stitch was on My Rose Valley's blog. I then had to wing the final row to give a straight edge, filling the "troughs" with a tr, htr, dc, htr and tr before joining as normal at the top of the next peak. I then finished with a treble crochet edge in oyster. I used a 4mm needle for this project.

The shell stitch is a looser stitch, or certainly is for me, so I really advise leaving far longer tails that you can weave in further into the blanket, or leaving the tails unwoven until the edging is on and then weaving into the edge. It feels far more secure that way.

So maternity leave officially starts tomorrow, the blanket is made, the tiny clothes are washed. In the meanwhile, I'm afraid the end of pregnancy has hit my like a high speed train and sleeping is hard, walking is hard and this baby has dance moves to rival those of the figure skaters in Sochi. Just thankfully not the blades on the skates to match.

We are ready Baby H. Not long to go and we cannot wait!