Alex, my 18yr old daughter, has wanted me to make her a Mermaid Blanket for about 6 months now. I crochet but can’t follow patterns. At all.
I’ve made all kinds of scarves, some hats, a baby bonnet for a Halloween costume for Alex (she wanted to be a baby), Sling bags, stuffed animal backpacks, puppy sweaters, Cat Hats, blankets but mostly – just scarves. And, lots of partially started scarves but not finished. I get bored of making scarves really.
So, when Alex asked me to make her a Mermaid Blanket I was kind of excited but it was also like – “FML! I don’t know how to follow a pattern, How am I going to do this?”
She wanted me to make it for Christmas but I just didn’t have the time. I had picked out some colors to make it but never purchased them.
Last week I was cleaning out our closet to find all of my crocheting yarns to start condensing and minimizing them all. We are trying to go room to room and figure out what we are throwing away, selling or putting in storage for us travelling in September.
I winged it!
I had all these bags… filled with tons of different yarns. 
I was digging through the bags seeing what I had and if anything inspired me to make ANOTHER Scarf. I don’t really wear them but it’s relaxing to make them. Alex loves them though so she’s gotten quite a few over the years.
Anywho, Alex comes downstairs and sees all my bags and she exclaims “Mommy! Can you make me a Mermaid Blanket?” I was like, “Um, I don’t have enough of any yarn to make one” And then she says “I know! You can make me a patchwork Mermaid Blanket!”
WOW
That was an awesome idea. But, how the hell was I going to do this? Some of these colors and patterns, sizes, weight, etc. were all so diverse. I had an idea. I would make the Ugliest, remnant, patchwork blanket that had the weirdest color combinations and types of yarn/materials, and it would be the most ‘special’, yet magical, mermaid blanket ever dammit!
I did this in one weekend. I made the tail separately. Here are all the pictures I took from start to finish and some in between with Shawn wearing it on his head as a big hat.
While it definitely isn’t a typical looking blanket much less what you’d expect a Mermaid to look like, Alex thinks its the most wonderful blanket in the entire world and she couldn’t be more in love with her Mermaid Blanket.
