A PRESENT AND ANOTHER BLANKET

Just over a week ago I had a surprise packet in the post. It was a gift from my Chesham friend who had made me this Christmas stocking because I'd admired the one she had recently made at her patchwork class - we usually do a Show and Tell when we meet. She has cataracts at the moment so I don't know how she managed this! However she's having the first one done this morning (Sat.) at Stoke Mandeville as when she went on her appointed day at Wycombe the machine had broken down - after she'd been 'dropped' and anaesthetised...
It's all Christmas material and the strips vary between 1/4", 1/2" and 1". The total length is about 8". The back is one colour material, plain green with Christmas stars and the 'cuff' is gold holly leaves. It's padded and lined. I had trouble with these photos, too dark, really, without a flash and the colours were wiped out if I used it. Ho hum...This is the latest blanket I've just finished for charity - what a struggle to use black wool in artificial light! Still, it's come up OK in the end. Made in the usual way of 4 strips crocheted together. I made one strip of three-wide squares and put it one one side. Then just made another strip and so on - I was interested to see that I have unknowingly put the same colours next to each other (apart from the black separating each piece) - turquoise, blue, pink, red, two dark greeny speckles which look quite grey, and others which are diagonal to each other. These were random choices yet somehow the same colours came at the same distance from the start.....