January 26, 2025

I bought this kit a little over 3 years ago and I’ve been looking forward to making this blanket ever since. Now’s the time!

Helen introduced me to the concept of a Crochet-a-long (CAL) way back in October of 2016, the first year I picked up crochet as my primary hobby. That CAL was her Whispers From the Past, and I’ve been addicted to CALs ever since. I always compare the quality and clarity of the CAL patterns to Helen’s and they generally don’t measure up. I’ve done a few other patterns of hers but it’s silly that I don’t do more of them since she is one of my very favorite designers, up there with Janie Crow, Polly Plum, Vanessa Smith, and Rachele Carmona.

I am fully capable of completing a challenging pattern just from the written pattern, and I have done so many times, but I love that this blanket has video tutorials. I enjoy following along with the designer (or a capable tutorial producer, like Esther Dijkstra of It’s All In a Nutshell) as I make a project -- it’s like crocheting along with a friend. Not just any crochet friend, but one who is seemingly obsessing about the same thing that I am! (Even though, for that person, the recording was made years ago.)

2025 is going to be my Year of the Kits which is exciting to me because I have realized that my favorite thing to make is blankets and that I particularly like the challenging ones that are different round-by-round or are made in varied motifs. Some people consider these blankets “fussy” and prefer the more straight-forward style like Attic24 where the color palette takes center stage, Daisy Farm Crafts, or Bonnie Bay Crochet, where it’s more about texture. I do love those styles too, especially when I’m making blankets for gifts, but as a process crafter, what brings me the most joy are the ones that constantly keep me on my toes. They are time consuming though, which explains why my collection of kits has grown faster than I can crochet them up!

My sister remarked last week that I don’t make that many garments, which is what she would be into (if she wasn’t obsessively painting water colors as a professional artist). It’s true, garments would be more practical since I absolutely do not need any more blankets. But 2025 is going to be about squeezing the most pleasure out of my crafting time as I can. So here I go, Helen, I’m off to follow you on Part 1 of Faith!

Part 1 Variations:

• Start with CH 4 ring and work over tail (as per Janie Crow’s neat ring), instead of a magic ring
• Instead of CH 3 for the first DC, use SC, CH (as per Rachele Carmona’s starting DC)
• Knotless standing DC (as per Jane Snedden Peever’s standing DC)

February 8, 2025

I finished Part 2 today and it was very fun. It’s measuring a little big at 23.5” instead of 22”, but not enough to worry about yarn amounts.

March 2, 2025

Part 5 is done! I’ve been having so much fun with this project that I’ve been working on it almost exclusively. I do want to get some other WIPs out of the way though, including the Film Roll Scarf and the Diamond Overlay Scrapghan, so I’ve put this to the side for a bit.

Fantastic, fun pattern!

April 5, 2025

I have completed part 6 (finally). The three rounds of tapestry crochet for the diamonds/popcorns was tedious. I don’t mind tapestry crochet, for example in the Rozeta blanket, but the difference is I don’t think the design this made was very attractive, so not worth all the color changing.

I saw one project where the crocheter just used color 1 for the entire last 5 rows of part 6 which is what I would do were I to do this over. (Which I’m not likely to do since Helen has so many gorgeous patterns I haven’t made yet!)