The Gatsby Blanket Introduction
Hello again!
Today I’m bringing you some crocheted goodness because I’ve started a new blanket! (Not that I needed to start a new blanket considering that I’m working on two others…but shhh we won’t talk about that!)
Today I bring you: The Gatsby Blanket. That’s what I’m calling it and if you can guess from the photo above, it is completely inspired by the cover of my copy of The Great Gatsby by: F. Scott Fitzgerald.
I’ve had this idea for a while now. I’ve wanted to create crocheted blankets based off of some of my favourite books and a few weeks ago I was going through a creative slump and made the ‘on-the-whim’ decision to lay out a sum of money to buy the yarn to finally make my first book inspired blanket. (But can we talk about how expensive yarn can get??) Anyway, the yarn finally arrived this week via mail and I sprayed them down with some Febreeze and let them sit for a few days before I started using them. (I don’t know man, with this whole pandemic going on I’m just trying to be as clean and safe as possible.
I picked out five colours that closely related to colours on the cover of the book and chose to use the “Snuggle Afghan” pattern in my (very) old issue of Crochet Today (not even in publication anymore!) But in case you were wondering, I’m using an issue from January/February 2011. These magazines may be old but I adore the blanket patterns in them and to this day my collect of Crochet Today magazines are my go-to for whenever I need project inspiration. I actually made this afghan for my sister a few years back in all different shades of purple and it came out so beautiful! I wish I could find a photo of it, because I know I took one, but I’ve since lost it. Anyway, I wanted to make for myself ever since and just never got around to it so I figured, what better time than now!
For every blanket that I crochet I create a Blanket spread in this little journal. I like to track my project and lay everything out before I start a project. I place samples of the yarn on the left side with their corresponding number or letter reference and the colourway of the yarn. Then on the right side I have all the details I need, yarn colour patterns and final layout of the blanket because it’s a join-as-you-go blanket. I think it’s really important to stay organized when creating a big blanket. I find that the more organized I am, the less stress I feel when going forward with the project.
So far I’ve been working on Round 1 for all the different squares, 35 little circles in total. I’ve written before about how I use crochet as a way to help easy my anxiety and this blanket is no different. I recently found out that the retail store I work at will be reopening Monday at 50% capacity and the amount of stress I have about going back to work in one of the most popular and high traffic malls in my region, is astronomical. I’m talking; my stomach feels like a rock, my face is breaking out, palpitations? Constantly. I needed a way to get my mind off of all that and focus on something calming and right now, that’s creating my Gatsby Blanket. While crocheting this blanket I’ll also be reading The Great Gatsby so I think that will be a nice way for me to calm down and not focus on work.
I’ll post more progression photos as they happen! I hope you’re having a calm and safe quarantine, wherever you are. And if you’re having to go out to work and interact with the public, I hope you’re staying safe and we’ll get through this!
xoxo Juju
