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A Blooming Big Blanket

Last autumn I went to Yarndale for the first time, (oh, what bliss!) and that was also the first time I met Lucy, from Attic24, in person. What a joy and a delight, and I happy to say that I now spend happy hours at Cooper's Creative in the company of Lucy, Tracy (Patchwork Chickens) and many other wonderful bloggers and creative ladies that I am so happy, and lucky, to call friends.

Anyway, I digress (nothing new there, then!)

I bought an Attic24 Cosy Stripe blanket kit at Yarndale, (which is now made and in regular use in our living room), and also mentioned to Lucy that I wanted to make a giant ripple blanket for our bed.  She was kind enough to let me call into her studio in Cooper's and use her blanket planning pegs to choose the colours. I happened to have brought with me to Yarndale a cushion cover from our bedroom, (super organised, eh?) so that I could match the wallpaper and fabric.

It's a Laura Ashley fabric, now discontinued, but I think it was called Peony Garden, and the colour is Amethyst.

I wanted to keep a simple colour palette, as the wallpaper (just on one wall though) and fabric is so busy, therefore I just picked 4 colours - Grape, Pale Pink, Grey and Silver, from the range of Stylecraft Special DK.



I wanted to have Grape as the prominent colour, as that is the main colour of the bedroom, so my stripes are 12 rows of Grape, 6 rows of Pale Pink,  2 rows of Grey and 1 row of Silver.  

I am using Lucy's excellent Neat Ripple Pattern.  I wanted my finished blanket to be 7' wide - the width of the bed (5') plus 1' overhang on each side.  I made a starting chain of 423, giving a working width of 420 stitches.  Oh boy.  I didn't quite appreciate how massive each stripe would seem to crochet!

1 x 100g ball gives me 7 rows.  My Lovely Son (LS) bought the yarn for my birthday last October, and I vowed to have it finished by my next birthday.  Seemed like ages at time, however, October will be here before I know it and it's still not finished! It's the sort of project that I work on like mad for several days, and then have a break.  By late spring it seemed to be getting a bit hard going, but then one day, at Cooper's, Tracy and I decided to each work 1 row per day on our respective blankets, with the aim of having them finished by the time chilly autumn nights arrived. That really kick-started it and I am pleased to say I only have 34 rows left to do, plus the edging!  The end is in sight.  WooHoo!!

I laid the blanket out, just to have a little admire:



I am so ridiculously pleased with how it is looking.  I love the narrow bands of grey and silver - sort of ric rac like.  It is also so, so soft and very drapey.  I am  using a 4mm hook, which is giving me just the right balance of density and drapiness.  (Spell-check has gone crazy on this paragraph, as I seem to be inventing words now!)

The other evening POH and I were watching a film, and, as it got to the good bit, I put the Blooming Big Blanket down in order to concentrate. A little while later I looked down to see that Daisy Dog had managed to drag a corner of BBB into her basket and was cuddled up with it, sound asleep.  I think it has definitely passed the Snuggle Test...


I now can't wait to finish it, and spread it upon the bed.  Only a few tens of thousand stitches to go.  :D

Donna x 

2 comments:

  1. Beautiful, that color combination is gorgeous!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Nancy, that's really kind. I shall be glad when the blanket is finished now and I can see it in all its glory on the bed!

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