ANATOMY OF A BLANKET…OR TWO

ANATOMY OF A BLANKET…OR TWO

If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you might have seen snippets of the two new blankets I made.

Do you know that each blanket tells a unique story?  A story about you, about what you like, about materials, journey to the shops, endless rummaging in your stash or afternoons on the laptop looking for a magic shade, they also tell about your love and caring because often they are made as a gift.

So no pressure!

I keep journals of my blankets,  some  sort of record where I can note down sources, patterns, observations, colour swatches primarily mood boards.

These are a few pages of my journal with the most recent blankets I made; they might look a bit chaotic as they are just meant for me but they can still give you an idea so you can create  your own.

You might already keep records of images and virtual mood boards for your projects, but I found the process to make a ‘real’ one very useful as I like to see the shades and patterns in real life.

 

I start with a few questions:

-Who the blanket is for?

-Time schedule?

-Budget?

 

The answers to the above will determine, size, material, pattern,

Then comes the mood…

This is my favourite part  of making a blanket as it is the creative one! And that is where the journal come indispensable for me because allows me to create different scenarios without committing to a final one.

I start with  collecting pictures, images anything that attracts my attention then I select what I like best, and I print them, I also start to narrow down colours ‘s possibilities with pencils, crayons, little bits of paper, Leafs anything that can be glued on a page!

Colours for me are the most important part because you can be an amazing crocheter, or having an amazing pattern but if you mess up your colours, you mess up the all thing.

Colours  are also a huge topic  and I will get to it in more depth with a few entries I m planning for the new year, with details on COLOURS WHEEL, HUES, SATURATION and VALUE.

It sounds complicated but it is not at all once you get the basic you will be able to make your own combinations easy-peasy.

The fact that colours are so important you can see it in those 2 blankets, both similar size, same pattern, same material, VERY DIFFERENT LOOK and FEEL because of the colours choice.

 

The bright one is for a colleague of mine that had a baby recently. I know she likes bright strong hues and , I hope, the blanket will reflect her taste and her heritage with loads of red for good luck.

The border is bold and strong n the joining is virtually invisible because what matters is the colours.

 

The second blanket is for another little girl, this mum loves pastels, muted colours and she has chosen neutral shades for the nursery . so I introduced more traditional baby hues, with a hint of colours to create some interest.

The joining is a flat braid because I like the lacy delicate effect that compliments the border and the colour choice.

 

Did it helps? I hope so.

 

Some technical details if you are interested:

For my journals I use a moleskine  A4 watercolour folio, landscape, 200 gr paper. Shop around because the price can vary between suppliers. It is perfect  size to be transported, has an elastic band so it can keep everything inside,  the paper is heavy  so you can use watercolours crayon markers, whatever also it  holds swatches, bits of yarns and anything you want to stuck down.

I also use double sided tape for the ‘yarny bits’, Glue, pencils, pastels, stickers , buttons anything really.

BRIGHT BLANKET DETAILS:

YARN: STYLECRAFT SPECIAL DK

COLOURS: emperor,petrol,turquoise,meadow,mustard,claret,lipstick,fuchsia purple,shrimp, magenta and clematis.

The border is done in lipstick. The pattern is adjusted from something I found in the internet sorry I have just the print on the journal and a swatch.

PATTERN :

it is the small square from @Catherine Blight’s Demelza CAL

 

PASTEL VERSION

YARN: STYLECRAFT SPECIAL DK

COLOURS:

Stone, pistachio,saffron,spice,duck egg,apricot

BORDER: Echkman: ‘crochet borders’ n.27

Joining as you go flat braid.

 

Lucia xx