Well here it is!

I started this blanket on the 27th December 2012 after my Mum fell in love with a ripple blanket I’d made for my sister (you can see it here) but that blanket was a single size, with 2 DK yarns held together on a 7mm hook. This one is a double bed size, with one DK yarn on a 4.5mm hook…

I have a love hate relationship with this blanket. I like the yarn, I like the pattern and I wanted to finish it for my Mum but… I picked it up and put it away more times than I can tell you.

Then came a bloggers chat with Pia from Stitches n Scraps over our respective blankets that we wanted to finish but were struggling with. And from that was born the Finish It Challenge on Ravelry. One month and the WIP had to be over 6 months old.

It was what I needed. I’m a moderator on the challenge. I HAD to finish my own project. For most of July I felt like I was literally grinding out the rows. I *might* have moaned about it on my blog?! (Surely not?) I was so envious when Pia finished her blanket about midway through July! Check it out here. And suddenly yesterday my blanket was done. And then last night at 11.30pm I finished the border.

The border is one row of doubles and one row of single crochet. (Warning, this might be US terminology, I get confused, but I learned to crochet from US patterns.)

So, there we go, my finished blanket. And I’ve finished the challenge three days early. I am grinning from ear to ear. I’m off now to post on the FO thread on the Finish-It-Challenge Ravelry page.

And finally, I took most of the photos outside for the colour, but here it is laid out on my sitting room floor. It appears to be perfectly square. That’s a bit surprising !

You’ve heard me referring to this blanket as the Blanket of Guilt, then morphing into The Blanket of Doom (because I felt doomed to never finish it!). Pia had the Neverending Nightmare Stashbusting Blanket. Hers is now known as the Reversible Rainbow Blanket. I’m not sure what to call mine. All suggestions gratefully received. In any case I shall be giving it to Mum on the 10th for her birthday.
Edit: I forgot to mention that this blanket is partly my friend Sam’s fault. He and his partner Josh bought me half the yarn for Christmas 2012….
Second edit: it took me THREE hours to sew in the ends. Argh!
Third edit: I now think of it as The Thank God It’s Done Blanket 😉