Monstrous Mongoloid Baby Blanket

A dear friend of ours was to have a baby shower out of state from where I live . From teaching myself many different stitches while I was learning I had compiled multiple stacks of squares. Each one unique by a different stitch or style of twisting used. I didn't want all this knitting to go to waste and thought it would be a more thoughtful type of gift. This will be the blanket of my learning stages. Each piece of it taught me something different. It's not perfect, but it wasn't meant to be.

The first step was making enough squares to make up the blanket. The next step would be to map out how to connect them all. Of course when I set them all together, I realized that they didn’t match in the way they pulled or in size. They made different sizes. I didn't realize how much of an inconsistency it would be even though I cast on the same amount of stitches for each one. That led me to the train of thought to dive into learning crochet immediately. I would learn stitches and border each square with them and then resume the mapping of how they would fit together.

The borders were fine and dandy. I learned a new crochet method for each border and, when I had several done, I placed them side by side and realized I did not make the situation any better, they matched up just as poorly as before, although they did look nicer with the new black framing.

At this point I'm thinking I am so glad she's a hippie and loves thrift stores and homemade objects that make statements. I'm thoroughly enjoying putting this together but I am super grateful she'll appreciate it when it is finally finished. I'm resolved to the fact that this blanket is going to take me forever but I’m still determined to listen to this blanket as it yells at me constantly with what to do next.

So this brings me to the point where I noticed the patterns continue to pull different ways. I decided to fix that by crocheting three large strips of solid shell patterns (well, two shell stitches and one mesh background with a spiral) to place evenly between the squares to help keep the flat shape.

What is supposed to be the last step is connecting them all. LoL, I thought it would be fun to freeform them together using all sorts of shells and crochet stitches. Seemed like an easy enough idea. The thing is this blanket keeps growing and growing and growing. It began as a baby blanket, converted to toddler, and now soon it is to graduate to Queen.

Okay, not that large but large enough…It is definitely taking me forever. I hope she understands fully when she finally does get it exactly why it has taken me almost a year and half or more to get it completed.

Enjoy the pictures. If you decide to take something like this on, I wish you the best of luck. I am having fun with it. Definitely not copying anything I’ve ever seen before…