Missing TJ

TJ has been gone for 5 days now and it's too quiet around here. I'm missing the hugs, laughs and special moments. I did get his 'blanket' finished. It's made for a twin size bed. Knitpicks.com had a deal...spend $50. and shipping is free. I knew I wanted cotton yarn for his blanket and they had 4 colors of 'organic' cotton. white. cream, light coffee and darker coffee. I also bought a softer fuzzier cotton in brown and cream. This yarn was not a heavy/thick as the organic, so when I used it, I used two colors together [variegated]. I tried a couple of patterns [granny squares and straight 178 stitches across] but, kept going back to zig-zag because the most you have to count is 7 [ seven single stitches up - three single stitches in one stitch - seven single stitches down - skip two stitches except for the first row which is a 155 stitch chain]. The pattern of colors changed as I went along. It was supposed to be darkest at both ends and lightest in the middle, but when I worked with the softer yarn I decided to end the top with the two strand two color yarn for softness near the face. It didn't seem wide enough after I was 1/4 of the way done, so I crocheted until I thought is was long enough and had the darker balls of yarn left. So I single crocheted up and down both side of the blanket to make it wider. When I thought I had used most of my yarn I finished the sides with a trim stitch that I made up [not too girly] starting at one end of row chain three - skip one stitch - single crochet in next stitch - repeat until opposite end of row. I underestimate the amount of yarn I needed for the width and having the same color yarn as first row .....I decided to make the blanket longer, inventing a stitch that put more weight on the bottom section of the blanket. I pulled yarn up through both strands of a single stitch and pulled yarn through TREE loops on my hook instead of the normal two! Don't know how long it took to make. On and off for three months? Every single stitch is a kiss from GG and every open space is a hug! Sweet dreams TJ.