Last Dance on the Beach Blanket finished

Very pleased to say my Last Dance on the Beach blanket is all finished.   This is the first blanket I have made and I have really enjoyed it and learnt a lot on the way.

My main reason for making it was to learn new stitches and techniques as I felt I was very stuck in only basic doubles and trebles in my crochet projects but I now know there is another crochet world out there and although stitches are generally based on doubles and trebles, it is how you use them that counts.

I even got through the piecing together and the border - not my favourite part of any project whether it's patchwork, quilting or crochet.   I think what helped was that I have far too many crochet projects on the go at the moment with several more waiting in the wings so each day I set myself goals with the WIPs so that I can get them all finished and once the target was met I could move on to the next one.  This always works for me as I do love ticking things off on a list!

I now want to use this new knowledge to experiment with some freeform crochet, but not until I've finished a few more WIPs.

Last Dance squares all finished!

The last four sets of squares for my Last Dance on the Beach blanket are all finished and all I have to do now is put them together!  Sounds so easy but it's not a task I look forward to.

The ninth square was a particular favourite of mine.  It had a cable skip in it, something I've never done before so yet again I've learnt something new.

The next one was probably my least favourite mainly because I found it physically difficult to do as every other row had to be worked in the loop behind the back loop.   By the fourth square I was getting the hand of it but I don't think I made a particularly good job of it so I hope it looks okay once it is together with the other blocks.

Week 11 was one of my favourites too, probably because it worked up very quickly and I got them done quickly.   Another new stitch so another learning experience.

The final set also made up quite quickly - maybe I was just eager to get them finished!   Loved this one too although it took me a time to be able to know where I was in the pattern and had to resort to keeping count on paper!

To give me an idea of what the finished blanket will look like, I've laid the blocks out on our spare bed.  The photo is not brilliant but it does give an you an idea.