Hot Air Balloon Blanket Completed

I would just like to shout a bit and share the fact that I have now finished my hot air balloon blanket.  Which blanket might this be?  Why, it's this one, of course.  The one that's made up of 285 individual rectangles.

I finished it this afternoon and I am so pleased with how it turned out.  Above are some photos showing how I put all those separate rectangles together.  I had to crochet ( yes, crochet, this is not knit ) all the columns together first, and then go back in the other direction and close the gaps by crocheting the rows together.  I could have done it the other way around, too.  It doesn't matter which direction you go in first, just that you have to do all of one direction and then do all of the second direction.

Not really sure what I'm talking about here?

That's ok, you don't have to.  I don't expect everyone, or even most of everyone who reads this know all the technical crochet stuff I throw in here from time to time.  What you should be doing though ( or least what I hope you're doing ), is shouting along with me at the fact that I finally got here.  At the very least I hope you're excitedly clapping your hands or something.

From beginning to end this project took me about two and a half months.  All to make a 48" by 56" blanket.  Yes, those are some slightly strange measurements, but it's what it turned out to be in order for me to get the design I wanted.  This is one more blanket towards the goal of getting an online blanket shop open, so it really is a big deal for me to have finished it.

I am now going to go and eat some ice-cream to celebrate.  You should too, to celebrate with me!  Don't feel like celebrating all that much tonight?  That's fine, don't worry about it.  I still give you full permission to use this post as an excuse to eat ice-cream, though, because really, ice-cream in the summer is just a fundamental part of life.

Em