Noah's Ark

I have been working hard for the last few weeks on a very special project.  Before I say too much I want to show it too you.

My friend Angie is having a baby in about 4 weeks and this was her baby shower present, sort of.  She paid for the yarn and I did all the work.  I had a lot of fun making this blanket and it is really pretty simple.  There is no reason a beginner could not do this as a first or second project, but I have gotten a number of people on Ravelry who have mentioned to me that they love this blanket but could never make it because it is too hard or they don't crochet.  So I have compiled a few tips or ideas I have about this blanket in the hopes it will help you tackle this.

1.  You don't have to crochet.  Huh? What ?  Are you nuts?  Nope I am completely sane. Despite the fact that this is a crochet pattern, and I can only knit a very little bit,  I know that this is totally something that anyone with basic knitting skills could knit.  The base is a ripple afghan .  The boat is crocheted flat with a few strategic increases--you could totally buy the crochet pattern and simply knit the boat ( and house) as they are written.  The animals, with the exception of the giraffe's neck, are worked in the round from the center outward so break out your double pointed needles and you can do the same.

2.  This is a beginner to advanced beginner level crochet pattern.  So even if you just learned to crochet last week this is totally a pattern that you can do.  The background is all double crochet worked flat--super duper easy and super duper fast.  The hardest thing going on in the background are some increases and decrease ( yeah I know these are a tiny bit tricky for a beginner but you can do it).  The animals are worked in the round in single crochet which is also super duper easy.

3. Get yourself some audio-books or radio, or tv, music, movies whatever you like.  This is not super huge but you do have to work about a mile of plain old double crochet, plus sew all the animals on.

4.  Give yourself plenty of time.   I know I just said this was super duper easy and I stand by that.  However after finishing the background in about 2 1/2 days I then had to spend 5 days making little animals and about the same amount of time sewing everything together.  So although it is easy, this is not the fastest blanket in the world.

5.  Use a yarn needle with a great big eye.  You are going to end up sewing in 100 plus ends on this one.  Do yourself a favor and put your embroidery needles away after you finish the faces and dig up or buy a proper darning needle.  I have sewn in ends with embroidery needles before but it is always a fight to thread them. When you have so many ends to deal with you want to be getting the sewing done and not fighting with your needle.

6.) Use safety pins  to pin the animals in place to the blanket so they aren't wiggling all over the place.  Straight pins don't work--trust me,  and no pins are even worse.

7.)  Have Fun  The most important thing whether you knit or crochet is that you take the time to enjoy making an awesome blanket.