I am calling this blanket Purple Irises

As I was crocheting with the variegated yarn it reminded me of the irises that I tore out of my rose garden this past spring.

I really enjoyed crocheting this blanket. I used a pattern called the Rustic Ripple. I think that the pattern’s finish dimensions were 48 x 60, but they were using a larger hook. I used an I hook and mine ended up being around 36.5 x 51. It actually seems to be a nice size for a child to use or haul around. Using guidance from posts on the Alottastitches blog, I determined that I’m using about one ounce of yarn per 3 rows. That at least gives me an idea of how much yarn, approximately, I will need for each blanket. Each color was made up of 8 rows, for a complete count of 88 rows for the full blanket. As a pianist, this is the perfect number. After all, there are 88 keys on a piano.

I have already started working on my fourth afghan. This one will be quite a bit brighter!

I want to leave you with a story that was related on my local chapter’s blog. A counselor at one of the local crime victim centers told the ladies dropping off blankets that one of the children who received a previous donation said that receiving a Project Linus blanket was like a magic cape that protected them.

Just that one sentence makes all of the time and effort spent crocheting a blanket more than worth it! Perhaps I’ll say some extra prayers over all blankets that I crochet from now on.