Fluffy fluffs

The good news: the new blanket is going great!

 

Check out these impeccable stripes. So lush. Wish I'd made the original blanket's stripes this wide. 

The bad news... 

Okay, I don't actually use my finished stripey blanket that much. Probably five or six times in the two or more weeks since it's been available. I love the way it looks waiting for me on my ottoman but I haven't been that cold. And I'm not going to complain about the little tails that are starting to poke out of the spots where I ran them in, because that's life with acrylic. There are no little clutching fibers holding each other in place, like with wool.

What does concern me is the fluff. Especially given the aforementioned light use.

I don't know if you can see the serious halo coming off that off-white stripe in the middle. So maybe this second pic will explain it better. Check out the blurred upper end of the pink stripe vs the crisp lower left.

 

And it's super localized, like the slight pressure from my knees and toes are just too much for the yarn's structural integrity. 

Arg, right? and here I've just bought a ton more of this yarn for a third blanket to match the bedroom. I guess I'd better only use that one over the duvet!

But still... learning to make a crochet blanket has been a really soothing process. I was reading yesterday how helpful two-handed crafts are for mental health and addiction recovery, and it made me feel glad that even less-lasting materials like I'm using are available affordably for people who need them for coping strategies. 

Also, I don't know whether I'd have been able to justify shelling out wool prices for a blanket so big it takes nearly three months to make. I've bought plenty of frivolous things, but even I have limits, ha!

(of course, now that I know how to do this, I will totally be shelling out for wool some day.)

Hope you've got a satisfying and high quality project to work on this weekend, or some other pleasant way to pass a little quiet time! Thanks for dropping in and I'll see you next Saturday.