I love woollen blankets, especially handmade knitted or crochet blankets, but it does have to be wool or maybe alpaca, I’d probably be happy with alpaca, hot, very hot, but happy.  I love the warmth that comes from animal fibres.  Even when its wet, wool keeps you warm, although it might be very heavy!  I know some people love acrylic, possibly for their bright colours or being able to wash it easily, but there are so many lovely washable wools on the market these days, at very reasonable costs and acrylic just does not keep you warm, well not like wool does.  And I especially love the tones that look like tweed, I told my gran that that was my favourite yarn, when I was about six, long before I discovered knitting in my forties.  She said it was her favourite too.  But there is one thing I always forget about woollen blankets..

They take a very long time to produce.  Well they do for me, I know there are some people who can just crack on with them and with a flourish produce a blanket in record time, I can do that for a quilt, I just can’t do that for knitting.  I get side tracked so easily, a pair of socks here, a few rows on a cardigan there, download that shawl pattern and spend the morning threading beads.. I’m just so fickle.  But my blanket is growing into nice long strips now, so the colours are coming together and I can get an idea of what it is going to look like, I’m so in love with it, its spurring me on.