Crocheting a Bobble Stripe Blanket with LoveCrafts

Disclaimer: I was gifted the yarn mentioned in this review. All views and opinions are 100% my own

Lockdown has been a challenging time for many people. We’re spending more time at home than ever before and that’s certainly strange in itself. I like to keep myself busy so I decided to try and learn how to crochet.

It’s something I’ve attempted many times before, but I’ve usually ended up failing. However, lockdown gave me the perfect opportunity to try again. You can read more about my first attempt at learning to crochet here.

When I first started learning how to crochet I quickly became aware of a website called LoveCrafts. Every crochet group on Facebook mentioned LoveCrafts as the home for all things crafty from knitting to stitching and more!

Every month they welcome 3 million crafters to their website, and their online community gathers 1.1 million amazing makers. It’s no wonder then that the first place I headed to buy yarn was LoveCrafts.

Imagine my surprise then, when a few weeks after starting to learn to crochet, LoveCrafts contacted me to work with them in exchange for some of their lovely products. Naturally I headed straight for their huge selection of yarn!

I decided that I wanted to make a ‘bobble stripe blanket’. The free pattern for this blanket is available online from Bella Coco here.

Bella Coco, run by Sarah Jayne Fragola, offers amazing video tutorials that are perfect for beginners like myself. I started by watching her videos and practising the different types of stitches. I’ve even joined in with my first CAL (Crochet Along) and I’m so happy that I can actually read the patterns now instead of watching the videos, although I do still like to watch the videos to make sure I’m on the right track!

Bobble Stripe Blanket

Back to the bobble stripe blanket and LoveCrafts. I ordered a selection of yarn by Paintbox and StyleCraft.

I love the mixture of colours available. The bobble stripe blanket requires DK yarn so that’s what I mainly ordered. However, I did also order some gorgeous Wool Mix Aran yarn by Paintbox which will be perfect for a blanket I’m planning to make for my mother-in-law.

After much consideration, I decided to use the following Stylecraft colour yarns for my bobble stripe blanket:

• Parma Violet
• Lemon
• Fondant
• Spearmint
• Magenta

To start off I watched Bella Coco’s video tutorial and paused it where I needed to. I like this way of learning because you can stop and start where needed, and really go at your own pace. I really enjoyed learning how to make the bobbles, use different stitches and watching the blanket grow.

It took me just under three weeks to make my bobble stripe blanket. That’s because I could only really work on it for a few hours in the evening when my girls were in bed, so it’s definitely a blanket that could be mad quicker if you had more time to spare in the day!

I’m so proud of this blanket. It’s the first ‘proper’ blanket I’ve made, and although there are plenty of mistakes, I still love it. It was a big learning curve for me. I’ve learnt that I need to always count my stitches to ensure that the blanket stays the same size for each row. I also learnt to make sure that each ‘bobble row’ has the same number of bobbles in! Aside from that, I couldn’t be more proud of myself and I absolutely love my new blanket. I still can’t believe that I actually made it!

The Finished Blanket

What do you think? Do you like my bobble stripe blanket? Have you learnt a new skill in lockdown? Let me know in the comments below.