If you have been following Irish Monarchy at all, you’ll know I had this crazy idea a few YEARS ago to crochet a blanket. I have been crocheting for years, so how hard could it be to make a larger blanket?!?

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Back near the end of 2016, I wanted to do another daily project. I had taken photos on Instagram every day during 2015 and thought it would be *fun* to do something in 2017.

I needed almost an entire year to recoup from the photo challenge – it got a bit stressful making sure a photo was logged each day! With 2017 approaching, I thought this would be the perfect time and fun to crochet a blanket!

First, let me be very clear, this was fun. I loved taking the time to crochet. I was able to transport the blanket to hockey practices, hockey games, and hockey tournaments. Did I mention I started the blanket during hockey season? I would get wrapped up in the game and sometimes wouldn’t even get through an entire row. Not too worried, I had an entire year, right?

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Three Mistakes to Avoid

There were three things I would change if I ever got the crazy idea to do this again:

First – make the blanket smaller. Don’t get me wrong, it is going to be long. 365 rows is going to cover some ground. Mine covered a lot of ground in both directions.

Second – don’t get fancy and change the stitch. This was my biggest downfall. In January I had done just a single stitch, and in February thought it would be *fun* to try a different stitch. The basketweave I switched to was more difficult, took more time, and threw off the entire stitch count of the blanket.

Third – don’t go out of the country during the third month of the blanket challenge. It really throws off the motivation. I loved my trip to Ireland but unable to continue the blanket for those two weeks, and not very motivated once I returned!

Persistence Pays Off!

Thankfully, the one thing I did do was start this blanket with friends and thankfully we were both behind and determined to finish the blanket.

We cheered each other on throughout 2018. Then the blanket became so large and heavy it was harder and harder to bring to hockey games, so had to do at home. It folded up nicely into a bag and moved from room to room as I procrastinated through the year.

Then 2019 arrived.

I was on a mission to finish, and even had a helper in 2019. A fluffy little Havanese we named Stella joined the family and she LOVES sitting on the blanket. Thankfully she likes orange.

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And finally, at the end of 2019, we were determined with less than two months to crochet that in 2020 we were going to finish this blanket.

Then January happened.

January just wasn’t the best month. Then, in February, we were a bit more optimistic that this year would be the year we would finish this blanket.

Unless you have been living underground, March is where it all went bad for socialization, but it turns out it’s a great time to curl up and crochet your heart out.

Quickly, we made up ground while catching up on Netflix and finally, after many years, both of us completed our blankets in April of 2020 (she beat me by about a week).

Finally, after THREE YEARS. THREE MONTHS. TWENTY-FIVE DAYS. The 2017 daily temperature blanket was complete!

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Don’t expect anything for 2021. Might have something in me in 2022. Or 2025. Or 2030. For now just going to scale it back and make a whole lot of hats and scarves with my leftover yarn skeins!