A special gift for a long-time friend

Photo by Chiara

My sister, being the social butterfly that she is, is still in contact with friends she made while we lived in Italy. She's still close with one in particular, to the point that the girl came to visit us in Canada for three months! Chiara arrived at the end of February, hoping that winter would be short. Of course, we had one of the longest winters I remember, even getting snow in April!

Anyway, Chiara was around when I gave my parents their blankets, and one day we got talking about other designs and colours. She asked me if I had the time and desire to make her one. I said that I definitely had the desire, but I wasn't sure about the time! I was in the middle of final exams, and the last thing I needed was that kind of distraction. If there is any kind of yarn project to be done, there's a 83% chance that I'll start it instead of doing anything and everything else that needs to get done.

Chiara fell in love with this pattern by Red Heart, after having seen a photo of the design with a different colour scheme. I have to admit that I was a little dubious about how it turned out, but once it was done, I changed my mind.

Yarn went on sale as week or two after she asked me, and we went off to buy her yarn. I did very well with my promise of not working until exams were done. That meant, however, that I procrastinated even after exams were over because it seemed like such a huge task and sometimes I'm lazy about crocheting.

Photo by Chiara

I guess it might seem like I have a love-hate relationship with crocheting, and in a sense, I do. When I'm in the mood, I can crochet for hours, sometimes for several days in a row. When I'm not feeling like it, I can easily spend a few weeks not working on anything. However, even during those times, I still might look at yarn and patterns, planning or dreaming of new projects.

Because of my changing mood over the two months that I had to finish this blanket, I ended up spending many, many hours crocheting during the last week of Chiara's trip. I did the whole border during the two days before she left.

Let me tell you a bit about that border. I wasn't expecting it to take so long! I thought that it would take a couple of hours at most, but in the end, I feel like I put more than 12 hours into it. I invented the design as I went, and I can't even remember it right now (I finished the blanket about two weeks ago... oi). I don't think every row is the same, either.

I finished around 11:30 pm the night before Chiara was leaving. We used a Space Bag to flatten the blanket, and then spent 10 minutes laughing about how funny it looked. We then spent a good half hour trying to fit it into her already full, fat, and overweight luggage, spent even more time trying to close said luggage, and then attempted to put the luggage in the living room. I think the suitcase weighed around 25 kg.

Photo by Chiara

Every blanket that I finish becomes by favourite until I make a new one. Although I have plans for two more blankets, this one will be my favourite until one of those is done. To be honest, I had forgotten how beautiful it was between when I finished it and when Chiara sent the pictures.