Summer Cottage Blanket

It’s all finished!  Wanna see?

This blanket reminds me of potted geraniums, white wooden porch rockers, fireworks, and a white-hot summer sky, mid-July itself.  I want to put this on the bed upstairs in the summer cottage, in the room facing the lake, and then flop down on it with a stack of Richie Rich comics, Nancy Drew books, and old issues of Tiger Beat, with a fan pointed directly at my head.

I’ll stir up some Wyler’s lemonade drink mix in a jelly glass with Yosemite Sam on it and lie there sipping it through a straw, listening to the boats going by, watching the curtains flutter.

Later, when I’m all sandy and sunburned, I’ll wrap up in it and lie in the hammock, and Grandma will bring me a big wedge of watermelon, dripping and cold.

If I had a summer cottage, that’s what I’d do.

I started this blanket back in March, and have honestly loved working on it.  I used up a huge amount of leftovers, and added most of the pink geranium-ish colors as I went along, as it evolved into itself.  The ice blue border is four skeins of Ella Rae Amity, which is a wool blend, chosen purely for color.  (I will go with 100% wool when possible, but color is always my first consideration.)  The yarn used is mostly a mix of Patons Classic Merino, Ella Rae Classic, and Berroco Vintage, but there were a couple stray things from the crafty thrift store thrown in, again purchased for weight and color, and since those are other people’s leftovers, I have no idea what they are. 

I made 42 granny squares of 11 rounds each, in worsted weight yarn with a US size F hook, piling them up in a basket.  When they were all done, I wet-blocked them by soaking the squares in a sink of tepid water, then carefully squeezing the water out and smoothing them on the porch floor to dry.  I am a big fan of blocking your work—it made the squares so nice and floppy and orderly.  Then I chose (at the last minute) the yarn for the borders and crocheted the last round of each square in that color, joining as I went.

For the edging, I worked five rounds of (US) single crochet, and then a round of simple shells:  sc; skip one sc; sc, dc, ch1, dc, sc in same space, skip one sc, repeat. 

This one turned out just exactly as I hoped it would.  How often can you say that?  It is just right, just perfectly summer.