The PEACHY PETALS BLANKET
The PEACHY PETALS a new blanket…
After some silence I got a new blanket for you!
The time in lock down has given me the opportunity to reflect on what ‘s really important to me and it has been a time to re-evaluate priorities and to think about resetting goals for the future.
This doesn’t apply just to crochet but also to my life in general.
Crochet has played, without exaggeration, a vital role in these past few months, it has entertained me, distracted and brought some well needed focus.
I crocheted a lot, I made several samples, but mainly I focused on two new blankets.
One is a collaboration project with my friend Tinna Porudottir Porvaldar ( but I will write about all of that in my next entry…) and the other is PEACHY PETALS !!
Over these past months I have been looking into my work and what I like about designing.
And I think I am a bit of an ‘odd ball’ ( no surprise in that…)
I don’t know how other designers work but for me every blanket is a long journey, it takes a lot of energy and time to come up with a concept or something that I think is new or interesting… so you will wonder why do I do it?
Because I love it! I love the excitement of starting something new, I like making samples, choosing and tweaking the motif ,and at the same time my favourite part… picking the colours and fibres.
So the Peachy Petals is the result of all the above and several months of work.
Let’s start from the name.. why Peachy Petals….
‘Petal’ in Scotland is an old fashioned term of endearment, I heard Glen, my daughter Olympia’s boyfriend, calling her petal once, on a car journey, and the combination of the Scottish brogue plus the actual word made me smile ( don’t ask me why, it just did! ) , she is a bit of a petal after all!
And peach is her favourite colour… so there we go, a blanket came in my mind to emulate who Olympia is .. a lovely soft sweet girl that always smiles.
I wanted warm, light suffuse hues to emulate her character hence why the Peachy Petal is very different from my much bolder style!
So could I create something that is not so familiar to me? The answer is yes, as I do love a challenge.
Then came the practicality..how can I create something with tonal and subtle hues that is pleasing and interesting without using a ridiculous amount of different yarns and costing a fortune?
The secret is mixing…
I started with a colour “Blooming Dahlia” or Pantone 15-1520
then I made a mood board of basic tonal palette inspired by interiors .It came apparent that the most important thing to create a well balanced project while using several variations of the same colour.
The aim of this blanket was to use natural fibres and to create an array of tonal suffuse pale hues without using a lot of different colours and making the blanket prohibitively expensive!
I am very aware of the cost impact on my projects and I strive to offer projects that are beautiful but cost effective .
I think the combination of a mercerised cotton like Muskat and the Mohair silk yarn is a fabulous way to achieve the above.
The Mohair works beautifully in combination with the silkiness of the mercerised cotton and create not only subdued variations in colour but also gives a beautiful soft halo to the blanket. and… they work perfectly together, no knots, no tangles.
I have also added to the pattern a bonus version of the blanket ,made by one of my testers , Susan Cox.
Susan sent me this lovely picture of her blanket that she called ‘SPRING PETALS’ .
She made her blanket in 100% cotton too but without Mohair. and she also crocheted a lovely cushion made with a combination of cotton and mohair.Am I not a lucky girl to have such lovely ladies helping me?
My testers Janet and Julie tested the motif and Maggie draw a chart of the motif that I added to the pattern.
The pattern has also all the details on how to use the different yarns and the placements for each of the 96 motifs in the blanket, plus all the stats for Susan’s version. I think it is a lovely variation to the pattern and I hope it will give you the confidence to use this versatile pattern with the colours of your choice.
You can download the pattern either from here or from Raverly
So THANK YOU Susan for sharing your project, and Maggie Bullock for the motif’s chart.
LasT but not least you can get all the yarn for the blanket from the Woolwarehouse just press the icon , they have just started to send yarn internationally again after teh lockdown and the MUSKAT is on sale at 40% less until the end of JULY !!!!
So I hope you will give my new blanket a go !
Happy crocheting,
Lucia
