African Flower Crochet Blanket FINISHED!

I started this way back when, not only was this blog very young, but so were my crochet skills. This pattern was all over Flickr back in the day and I learnt how to do it on a photo tutorial there. Apparently it is a very old pattern from a magazine back in the Seventies, but also maybe from before that (there is some dispute) and there are also quite a few versions.

So some of them got turned into bags and cushions, I even did a pattern for one of the bags in a magazine, one of my first published patterns!

I actually finished all the crocheting last year. I inserted half African Flowers in two of the sides and filled the the other two sides with the purple border, then after another couple of rounds of trebles I finished with a round of crab stitch.

All that was left was to thread in all the ends left by the ‘joining-as-you-go’ method. I am scrupulous about crocheting my ends in as I work but this method means there is always one tail per hexagon left.

I had a feeble attempt at this and managed a small corner but it was so boring that I soon found something better to do!

I started using the blanket anyway as if it were finished and just tried to ignore the rogue ends. And then my lovely sister Jane came to visit at the end of March and after hearing my predicament, and having not brought much handwork with her, she offered to do the tail-threading for me. Thank you Jane!!

Jane made quick work of it and it was finished after a couple of evenings.

All that remained was the photography so I could finally show it off. I actually managed this a month ago and am just now getting round to posting – phew!!

I do hope the crochet lovers amongst you have enjoyed the pics of the beautiful blanket. I am still quite in love with it and the way it looks like millefiori glass.  It is really very special to me and I will treasure it forever.