Custom-Made Bed Blanket

A few months back I was sitting in a doctor's waiting room with my crochet to pass the time.  I quite often take a project with me when I know I am going to be waiting around for a while. On this particular day a couple of ladies came in & started talking to me about what I was making (a still unfinished blanket) & just generally chatting.  One of the ladies asked me how much I would charge to make her a blanket to cover her double bed as she'd always wanted one. I didn't really know what to say as I'd never made anything that hasn't been a gift.  I was really keen to make a blanket for her though & really wanted to give myself the challenge of being able to "design" a blanket without a specific pattern, so we agreed a price & the work began a couple of weeks later.

I had been asked to do a blanket with lilac, cream & pink & to include butterflies in it, so I immediately consulted with Ravelry.  I already knew that I wanted to make a blanket from lots of squares & I found quite a few free patterns that I used:

Butterfly crochet dishcloth
Butterfly
Purple Azure Butterfly - this one was my favourite & I did 4 of them in 2 different colourways but they did take HOURS to do.

The other squares were a combination of plain trebles, granny squares, cable stitch squares etc. I also wanted to add a couple of flower squares so I used one pattern from The Art of Crochet magazine & another one from Ravelry:

Simple 10 Petal Afghan

When it came to the centre, I had been asked to do a large butterfly in the middle.  My original plan was to embroider one on the front but my sewing skills aren't all that so I once again consulted the www. I wasn't really sure exactly what I was looking for but came across this wonderful butterfly that was crocheted around wire to make a wall plaque. I used the pattern & amended it to fit my needs.

The whole blanket took me a few months - longer than I had originally intended but I (& more importantly the recipient) was very pleased with the way it turned out.  I don't think I'll take on such a huge project again for a while - if I do I would have to charge at least double what I charged for this one due to the time it took - about 150 hours, I counted! I did enjoy taking on this challenge though & now have an order for a baby blanket as well, which is much more manageable!

xxx