The Fluffy Thing

A couple of weeks ago, when this whole isolation thing got underway, it occurred to me that a crochet project would be an excellent lockdown pastime. I can't go and buy more yarn; I have to make something from what I already have. In case you are unaware, this is not the usual procedure. What I usually do is pick a project, decide there is no suitable yarn amongst my collection, and go out and get exactly what I want.

This sort of behaviour leads only to the increase of The Yarn Stash, what with leftover bits, abandoned creations and the ever popular "I liked it so I bought some". Clearly, it's time for a stash buster.

The most daunting of my various yarn bins was the one labelled 'fluffy and bobbly'. The contents were mostly items inherited from my Nana, since I'm not fond of fluffy (or bobbly) yarns myself. Making something from this hodgepodge of tasteless fluff would certainly present a challenge.

After some experimentation on how best to work in the varying thicknesses of yarn, I elected to make a simple blanket in a half-double crochet, striped in several colours which would tone in well enough.

I've spent my evenings adding to this creation ever since. I had to scramble a bit to eke out the yarn; the last few stripes have various bits and pieces worked in just to try and complete the pattern. Last night I finished the border and the exceptionally tedious task of weaving in all the ends.

When you finish a crochet project, particularly something like a mixed-yarn blanket, the result is not especially tidy and even. The final look of the thing can be vastly improved through blocking. I soaked the completed blanket in the bath overnight, set up the blocking this morning.

Blocking is when you wet a completed item to loosen and even out the tension in the stitching, then lay it out to dry in the desired shape. Sounds simple, but it can take a bit of doing. After soaking, you have to haul out a large sodden item, squeeze as dry as possible, roll it in towels to get the worst of the moisture, and that's all before you start.

You need to lie the wet item on a non-absorbent surface. If you put it on towels or something, it'll just all be damp and get smelly. I lay out plastic on the floor and do my blocking on that. Getting the blanket to take the correct shape is the trickiest bit. I actually pin mine in place, so it stays put and dries beautifully.

Of course, if you're particular, it can take a long time to get that blanket pinned out nicely. At one point, I thought I was done, until I checked with a tape measure and found one end was seven cm skinnier than the other. I'd say I was fiddling about with the pins for an hour or more, but it's now laid out squarely and will at least be a decent shape when dry.

I'm reasonably pleased with the result. It's not something I would have made otherwise, given that neither the colours or textures are what I would choose, but given what I started with I think it has come together well enough.

I've described the evolution of The Fluffy Thing at length, because the rest of the day passed quite uneventfully. I finished the vacuuming, collected more fallen feijoas, and abandoned the detective stories to chuckle over a P G Wodehouse.

The only other activity of note was bagging up the mountain of donation items in my hallway, though inevitably I did change my mind about few items. A couple of things found their way back into the drawers, and several more were deemed too shabby and went in the bin. The rest are packed tidily in bags and sit in my garage awaiting the day I can drop them at a clothing bin.

And that's that. Now that I've got back into the crochet habit, I'll have to come up with another stash buster for the duration. Which bin shall I choose this time?