A crochet project of epic proportions...

I have never been one to do things by halves. Do it or don't do it has always been my motto.

So, after my initiation into the world of crochet went so well, I decided that my next project should be.. shall we say, on a grander scale. A blanket. A double bed sized blanket. Super colourful, super cosy, super awesome. 

After trawling the internet for the perfect specimen, I happened upon this bad boy. A couple of tweaks, a few colour changes and this was definitely the blanket for me. And the best bit? For all of its impressive appearance, it's totally manageable for the fledgling crocheter! (Rather than rehashing Attic24's excellent instructions, I'll just take you all on a whistle stop tour through how I went about it!)

Step 1: Choose your yarn colours. Hands down my favourite stage. I'd say for this particular project, you could go in one of two directions - a supercoordinated 2/3 colour stripe OR a technicolour mishmash of as many yarns as possible. I opted for the latter. As I found out later, this can be a serious benefit to the less organised crafter - if you run out of a particular yarn, throw a different one into the mix!

Step 2: Get chaining! I'd recommend you keep a pen and paper close by at this stage - you don't want to lose count and have to unravel! Count the chains 10 at a time and you can't go wrong. After that, get trebling!

Step 3: My main tweak to the existing pattern was my decision to switch the stripe direction from horizontal to vertical. Essentially this let me turn the blanket from a single bed topper to a double. And as tweaks go, super easy, just keep crocheting until you like the size!

Step 4: Once the blanket is the size you want, bind off with a good tight knot. Now it's time to weave in the ends (or if you're feeling super lazy, turn them into tassles!). I'm not going to lie to you, this bit is on the tedious side, but stick with it. You're sooo close! Get yourself a large needle or a bodkin, stick a DVD in and weave those ends!

Step 5: Hurrah! It's time to crochet again! This part you have a little creative licence with - create the perfect border for your blanket. Pick a yarn that works with all the colours in your blanket and off you go. Starting with a row of trebles all the way round is probably the best place to start - this will fill in the little gaps round the edges and get things looking a little more uniform. After that, doubles, trebles, round corners, square corners - the world is your lobster.

Step 6: Et voila! You are finished! You are now the proud owner of a deliciously cosy blanket. Not a quick project, but so very satisfying...