With all the orange Buddies finished I decided to get back to the cross stitch I started earlier this year. As you can see it’s really taking shape – what’d mean it could be anything, such as the start of a swirly whale.
However I also need a portable project for the car. I have tried to cross stitch whilst passengering and, despite seeing two other women with work in hoops (something I don’t do), find it nigh on impossible.
So I decided to make a baby blanket from these. My leftover Snuggly baby yarn that I keep segregated from my other leftovers due to their snuggly softness and the fact that it does seem to turn out slightly thinner than regular double knitting weight.
I wanted to do something completely random with the colours and initially intended to knit the blanket in garter stitch with each row a different colour, then I decided to crochet random coloured small squares to end up with an almost patchwork like finished effect. I intended to edge this with a contrastingly fancy border.
I crocheted them together as I went along (per a technique shown here at Attic 24 – except I seem to need to insert my hook differently, hence the little blanket stitch type joins on mine). BUT randomness is hard! I have found this before – when I tried to randomly stencil squares on the living room walls. It’s so much harder than a strictly adhered to preplanned pattern. Or even crocheting a bunch of squares and them deciding how to put them together by spreading them all out on the floor and avoiding complete randomness which ends up with similar coloured squares next to each other and areas of light and dark colours bunched together.
So I can’t decide whether to proceed with the randomness by picking a colour without looking and them just deciding which square to attach it to or seek order by using colour combinations such as…
or
I’m beginning to think that randomness is best obtained not by using the completely random selection of colours to hand but by using colours purposely selected to then appear random. I don’t know whether it’s hard for everybody or I have the type of mind that craves order. I think it might be the latter.
Feresaknit's Blog 
One question, why don’t you work in a hoop?
I have currently decided that all crafts escape me. I’m sticking to dog whispering.
oh yes, i have issues with random. unless it’s generated by a computer, in which case that’s fine, but if i have any say in it, there will be a noticeable pattern… even if it’s only in my mind 🙂
lovely crochet! too funny that you noticed mine under the play doh. it was the first and last doily i ever crocheted. i don’t use doilies, but i had to make that one, since it was a daisy motif.
I don’t do random well… I guess I have a natural desire for order of some kind and even when I tackle knitting with a variety of colors, I end up coming up with some kind of pattern and sequence of colors… can’t help myself. And I actually would never choose any fabric to sew or buy any of the hippy clothes of the 60’s where there was too much randomness… so I can’t be much help, I guess.
I don’t do random (although Andy says that some of the things I say are completely random!!) – I’d end up trying too hard to be random, so the result really wouldn’t be random at all!!