I noticed this the other day. A jumble of things on the back of the sofa: the kitten blanket, the boy’s cardigan and the newly finished throw slash blanket flung out of the way in a heap. It just struck me how normal it is for us to be flinging handmade blankets out of our way as if they were nothing special at all, which makes me feel glad. Nothing I had when I was young was handmade, and I think it took me a long time to appreciate the effort as a result.

This winter has been colder than most and since we live in a Victorian terrace we have sky high ceilings. Most of the rooms are warm enough, but the living room has an enormous bay window and currently no door, so the radiator does a sterling job of heating the top two feet of the room, leaving the bottom six feet utterly freezing. It’s been a joy to have this wrapped around my legs in the evenings while I worked to finish it – another boon to crochet, useful even before the tails are woven in.

I spread the blanket out to try and get a decent photo, but no sooner do you spread out a blanket in this house than a cat appears to claim it. In fact you can move the cat from the blanket but you probably won’t have time to take a decent shot before she appears again.

The pattern is from Simple Crochet again, still my favourite crochet book. It’s just one simple stitch combination that weaves a thick and robust fabric, perfect for keeping your legs warm while you watch a bit of TV. The yarn is Debbie Bliss Stella, which is now discontinued, and therefore available at a discount. I picked up the first of my Stella in the sale at John Lewis and then scoured the net gathering enough balls to make a throw of decent size. I possibly would have switched the red and the brown but I couldn’t get enough of the brown at the time, which is the price you pay for buying in the sale. It’s a very nice yarn to work with, and I do admit to a certain satisfaction at making a less that half price blanket.

Eventually you just have to give in and let the cat have her way, but she will let me get underneath it at least. I feel a little bereft at not having a blanket to get under and work on at the same time so may well be heading for a yarn sale sometime soon.

Dare I add a new acronym? Finally Finished Project…

I took it up to the Lakes and spent a couple of evenings putting the last squares together, before embarking on the border. I even did a little bit of that on the train – crochet is so much easier than trying to knit on the move – which makes me one of those people who have crafted in public. Never thought I’d be able to say that…

I did attempt a mini blocking session, with it spread out on a towel and me on my knees with a water spray, but I don’t think I’ve quite got the hang of it yet (or it could be that hanging about on my knees just isn’t as much fun as it used to be and I got bored and wanted it finished). It’s a great size for the sofa, because if you’re curled up it covers your legs and feet perfectly, without that annoying extra bit of blanket making you too hot, or gathering crumbs under your chin (I have my own cardigans for that). The cat for whom it was intended thinks it’s wonderful too, and she’s had several sleeps curled up on it already, which is lovely as she’d stopped sleeping next to me on the sofa when we got the new leather one.

I started off following the pattern in Simple Crochet for the modern afghan, but departed from it slightly. I used a larger hook (4mm) than asked for, and ended up with more squares (48 in total), but I think this has increased the finished size to something slightly more useful, for me and the cats. The next crochet project will be a crib/pram blanket, which I’m going to make using a combination of squares from the 200 crochet blocks book. No pattern in particular, just whatever square I fancy at the time, which should introduce the little nugget to the random nature of his mama’s mind sooner than he realises.