striped crochet blanket

I recently finished a big crochet project and am pleased as peach with how it turned out. I started it well over a year ago, when I found out one of my dear friends was pregnant and I decided to make a baby blanket as a gift. 

I learned how to crochet about 3 years ago. While I am not terribly good at it (no fancy patterns or complex stitches here), I do very much enjoy the rhythm of it. I like how crocheting allows my mind to zone out in a good way. November's issue of Martha Stewart Living had an article in it by Lisa Borgnes-Giramonti (see her beautiful blog here) on the mental health benefits of crafting. My favorite quote is, "When the midbrain is engaged by the repetitive movement involved in many crafts, the temporal lobe is unable to focus on worry or stress." (Psychologist Robert Maurer).
Don't you just feel sometimes like you need your temporal lobe to unfocus?

I continue to be amazed at how taking just one length of yarn and wrapping it a certain way around a hook can result in actually creating something. I think I also like crocheting because while days, weeks and months seem to fly by, it is nice to look at a scarf or a blanket and, while so many details of that time fade, a tangible creation remains.

My goddaughter recently had her 1st birthday and I (finally) finished her blanket. I created a random pattern of stripes with gray as the primary color with purple stripes and then flipped the combination to purple with gray stripes. In this way, each half of the blanket is a mirror image of the other, with the colors reversed.

I also chose to make the blanket larger than a standard baby blanket in the hopes that while my goddaughter is little it will be a blanket for her but as she grows up, it will continue to serve purpose as throw at the end of a bed or draped across a bedroom corner chair.

Do you have any yarn or crochet projects planned for the holiday? If so, I would love to hear about them!