4 Years in the Making: My Natural Dye Advent Blanket

     Hello my lovely readers! How’s it going?

     As the title of this post suggests, I have, after many many years, finished my crochet advent calendar blanket!

     It’s been on the WIP list for quite a while. I started making this thing back in 2020 using the first yarn advent calendar I got in December 2019 and now it’s 2023. When I got the first calendar I didn’t realise this was going to be a multi year project and I actually can’t remember at what point I decided it was going to be (it was sometime between finishing the first mini blanket and getting the next advent calendar), but it is done now! …mostly…but for now my 4ply natural dye advent blanket made using a 3mm hook is done! It measures about 140cm by 150cm (unblocked because I couldn’t be bothered blocking this) so it’s a good size but damn does making blankets with 4ply yarn and a 3mm hook take a while!

     So in order of the sections made, this blanket started out with a Hook and Light 20g natural dye advent calendar I got for 2019 that I used to make loads of motif squares in early 2020 (bottom left in the picture below). I think to this day this blanket section is still my favourite because I love the look of the squares in all those soft, natural colours.

     In 2020 I actually bought two advent calendars so in early 2021 I made two blanket section. The first one I made that year was the granny section with various sizes granny squares and solid squares (top right) using a 20g Sionnach Yarns natural dye calendar. Then I made a small crochet linen stitch blanket (top left) using a 10g Hook and Light calendar. While my favourite to look at might be the motif blanket, I think the linen stitch blanket was my favourite to actually make because I do love a nice simple stitch pattern I can do while watching stuff and the stripes were determined by how much yarn I had so it was quite a mindless, relaxing one to work on.

     Anyway, I wasn’t able to get an advent calendar in 2021 so the blanket got put away for a while until I got another Sionnach Yarns advent calendar in 2022 and was able to complete the blanket with corner to corner section (bottom right).

     And with that, the blanket was done…okay, I do think it needs a border and I do plan on doing that but it needs to be with a natural dye yarn to match the theme of the blanket and I was thinking I might try dye a skein of yarn using natural dyes so for that but that’s a job for future me to day, maybe over summer, or next year? Maybe this will actually be a blanket 5 years in the making…

     And just to finish this post off, here’s what kept happening whenever I tried to get pictures of my blanket…

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