A couple of years ago, my niece Renee joined the Annie's Attic Crochet Block of the Month Club to make this lovely Stitch Sampler Afghan in the Pearl/Cream colorway.
Renee has been crocheting even longer than I have, but she is in a different life stage than I am, and, a few months into her subscription, she realized that she just didn't have enough time to set aside for herself to enjoy crocheting these blocks.
I'm sure many of us can relate to her dilemma. It becomes an added layer of stress and/or guilt when we're subscribed to something that keeps coming at us, but in the process we end up finding out that we just don't have the time to engage with it.
So after six months, Renee cancelled her subscription and stashed the unused kits in her closet in the hope that she would eventually get around to making them.
Alas, the months kept flying by, and Renee found herself having only finished the first block.
Earlier this summer, she packed all the kits into a tote bag, which included the first six pattern brochures, all of the yarn, and the first block she made, and called me to ask if I would be interested in having them. She wasn't asking me to make the blanket for her; she just wanted the stuff out of her closet, and she assured me that if I took it, I could make whatever I wanted to with the yarn. I was happy to receive her offering. To me, the yarn and patterns were a gift, yet I also completely understood her need to be rid of them to protect her mental health in this moment. I have been there myself from time to time.
However, I also knew immediately that even if I used some of the yarn to make other things, I would secretly finish making the blanket and gift it back to her. 🩷 I think she will be surprised when I gift it to her but also pleased that she will be able to have this blanket in her home after she thought that would never happen.
In fact, the first thing I did was to crochet an open-mesh cardigan for myself using some of the yarn. 😂
Then I got busy crocheting the blocks for this blanket. Because each block is different, and because the pattern arranges the blocks in a way that does not follow their numerical order, I printed out little labels (I just printed them on paper and cut them out) to mark the number for each block and attached them with safety pins as I finished each one to help keep things organized as I went along. You can see the pinned-on labels in some of my photos. These were easy to remove once the blanket was fully assembled according to the pattern. Here's a link to download a copy of a PDF for my labels, in case you would like to use them for your blanket project.
I finished making the first 18 blocks from the six pattern brochures in the kits that Renee had purchased. Then I was faced with a decision: Do I find a way to get the rest of the pattern brochures (or a PDF of the pattern) from Annie's, or do I make up my own block designs until I have enough made to finish the blanket?
I did already have an account at Annie's from a pattern purchase I made years and years ago. So I decided to reach out to their customer service and ask if it would be possible for me to purchase the entire Stitch Sampler Blanket pattern as a PDF.
The short answer is no, they don't sell this pattern separately from the kits. (Hint-hint, Annie's; you would probably make a few extra pattern sales if you also sold this pattern separately from the kits!)
I explained my situation and how I was attempting to finish the blanket for my niece, who had purchased half of the kits. The rep who was helping me looked up Renee's account to confirm my story, then she said that she could arrange to have the other half of the kits (including the rest of the yarn and pattern brochures) sent to me all at once if I agreed to purchase them. I mulled this over for a bit and then decided to do it. The rep also added to my account the digital versions of the patterns (all of which include video tutorials) from all the kits Renee had purchased, as well as the digital patterns and videos from all the kits I purchased, which was so nice and very helpful. So I now had the complete pattern, plus all the matching yarn I needed to finish the blanket.
The individual blocks are very quick to make, and most of them were easy for me, but there were a few that I needed to view the videos to understand how to do them. You know how it is; trying to explain the steps in writing can often be waaay more confusing than just to SHOW someone the steps. But even the ones that I needed the video for were fairly easy to crochet once I understood the steps.
I would make a block or three each evening during my break from work. That's how quick and easy most of the blocks were.
I finished crocheting the blocks on Aug. 15, and I finished weaving in the ends on Aug. 27. Even though I used a 5.5 mm hook to crochet all of them, I tend to be a tight crocheter, so even after adding a border that's a little more than 2 inches deep, the finished size of the blanket only measures about 46 inches by 52 inches. I'm pretty sure that the blanket will relax and maybe grow a bit after laundering (and certainly after being used for a while), but if I ever make another one of these later, I would probably use at least a 6 mm hook. (P.S. The blanket did grow about 3 inches in width and 4 inches in length after laundering. Yay!)
I deviated from the pattern in a couple of ways. First, I moved the position of Block 1 (the one Renee had made) from the outer-right column to place it more toward the center, because I wanted to "mark" her block with a little crocheted pink heart applique, and thus I figured it would look nicer if her block was placed closer to the "heart" (or center) of the blanket. So I swapped places with Blocks 1 and 29. To join the blocks, I used a technique where I slip-stitched into one block, then chained one, then slip-stitched into the other block, then chained one, and repeated that going back and forth all along the seam. That gives a nice, solid join that has a small bit of zig-zag texture but is subtle and doesn't detract from the prettiness of the actual blocks. I also deviated in the way I worked the border. I did one round of SC followed by one round of DC, followed by one round of SC, followed by one round of DC, followed by one round of SC, followed by one round of twisted SC.
For the little heart applique, I used a small amount of Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn in the Rosy Cheeks colorway from my stash and a 4.5 mm hook. I followed this video tutorial by ElyseCrochets on YouTube, which makes a lovely little quick and easy heart.
The blanket was finished in time for me to enter it in our local fair, so I'm planning to do that.