The last time I blogged about Sophie's Universe was back in May, when I was about to start the outer border. The top photo there shows it nearly complete, with just half of the final round to go. The nieces were nice enough to sit on it while I had it draped over my brother and SIL's sofa, which gives you a sense of scale. Apparently jumping on something Auntie Kat made is super-fun!
The final size of the blanket was about 170cm along each side. By area it's probably the biggest thing I've ever made, which led to a new challenge: how to photograph the thing so that the entire pattern was visible? I got this shot (still at my brother's, still with the last round to finish) by standing on a stepladder:
I wish it was straight-on instead of at an angle, but you get the idea. My cousins, who are a few centimetres taller than I am, offered to take a photo, but I figured I'd hijacked enough of the family gathering by that point.
So. This is stash-busting on a grand scale. I only bought one ball of white yarn for the entire blanket — it's used for the background of the last border pattern (the one with the red crisscrosses on it). I had more white yarn. I even had lots of white yarn, but not enough to make it around the perimeter without switching yarns, which would have made the blanket look a bit too raggedy and patchy. I was already playing with a certain amount of fire by using different shades and textures of white and cream throughout the blanket. It was worth the $8 in new yarn to finish it without making it look any shabbier.
I haven't blogged about the blanket being finished because it was finished in terms of crocheting, but not destination. The whole plan all along was to transform the stash into something useful and, with any luck, aesthetically pleasing to someone, and then give it away. I've had various suggestions (my initial idea was a women's shelter), but in the end gave it to Pegasus on Kingston Road here in Toronto. It will make a nice bright bed-topper for someone. Here's one final shot of it on my bed — which, again, for scale has a 150cm x 200cm mattress:
The pattern isn't my style since I'm more of a modernist, but anyone who's into folky/bohemian things should like it. I would definitely make something else by the same designer again. In fact, I already have my eye on something, if only I can collect the right yarns from my stash together in the right amounts.