Aran blanket experiment...

When I finished my recent pet blanket, I vowed not to make another blanket until next winter.  Well the weather is still cold and I broke my promise.

I have a bag of Aran wool to use up.  I decided to crochet a blanket or lap rug measuring about 36" square.  I'm not following a pattern, but simply doing row after row of half trebles (UK) through the bottom loops of the previous row.  This is the crochet stitch I mastered when making scarves last month.  It makes a lovely soft, squishy blanket.  

When I am knitting, I can pick up a ball of wool and judge almost exactly how many rows I will be able to knit with it.  But my crochet experience is very limited and I have no idea whether or not I have enough wool.  I'm just going to keep going and hopefully end up with the size I want.

My challenge now is to end up with a stripy blanket that looks reasonably balanced.
It's interesting planning the order of the stripes.  The biggest ball of wool is in a teal shade and that obviously has to be used more than the other colours.  I'm basically doing single rows of red, blue, mottled red, maroon, and cream.  After every fourth row, I crochet 2 rows with the teal yarn.  I'm happy with the way it's turning out so far.  I have crocheted about a quarter of the blanket and the wool seems to be lasting well.  

Here it is after 3 or 4 days:

The photo doesn't really do it justice.  It will never win a prize for fine crochet work.  But it's my first attempt and already feels like a warm, useful blanket.  I'm also working on some smaller items, so this will be an ongoing project.  Hopefully, I can finish it by the end of March.