The Polar Bear Blanket

I don't know about anyone else but my Beloved is a very grumpy impatient man when in a car! As soon as he gets behind the wheel his personality changes so I was very apprehensive about the 5 hour drive up to Anglesey!
 Having just finished the Maybelle blanket I needed a holiday project and one that would keep my mind off the Beloved's driving and colourful language and decided a blanket for a baby boy would be next.
 Looking in my yarn basket I realised I did not have enough white or cream Stylecraft...what a disaster.. I love it sooo much! No time to order more...so a trip to Hobbycraft was required!
Now Hobbycraft don't stock Stylecraft, in fact I don't know of any local shops that do so I knew a compromise would have to be made and I settled on the yarn by The Womens Institute.

The granny square pattern I chose was the 'Starburst' from Creative Jewish Mom here

I decided to use a 5mm hook to make sure the squares felt soft and were not too firm. Because of this it made a 18cm square...WOW! Very pleased as I would not have to make too many...

Let the car crochet commence!

I got 9 made on the journey. Each square took roughly half an hour to make and the Beloved  was a very happy man that his wife wasn't constantly sucking in her breath and putting on the brakes. I felt quite relaxed too!
After making 20 I joined the squares using the join as you go method. Now this is slightly different on a solid granny square and Oana's crochet channel on YouTube has a good explanation of this method here 

Then a simple border of one row of  treble crochet then 2 rows of block stitch

 ( dc ch1 dc ch1, working 3 dc into each corner.)

Needed something...what about a little bear?

So spent the evening making 10 little bear motifs which in white looked like little polar bears!
The teddy motif was from Dadas Place
I just used the brown yarn to make the eyes and nose as it is a baby blanket.

And here it is! The finished blanket measures approx 100x80cms.

 xxx Eirawen