:: Ta-dah – Cosy Stripe Blanket ::

I do love crocheting blankets of all shapes and sizes. My first crochet adventure aged 10 was a blanket, and it’s just kind of stuck. Since I returned to crochet a few years ago, with a desire to help me relax, produce something beautiful and help my Creative Mind fulfil it’s need to make, I have made baby blankets as gifts and commissions including five large bed blankets. This last one, the Cosy Stripe Blanket is one of Lucy’s at Attic24 and I actually went for the colour pack. Why? She is so talented at closing her colour combinations, I decided (with my tired and newly diagnosed Addison’s brain) that I – 1. didn’t need the hassle of fiddling with colours and 2. was extremely happy with Lucy’s selection.

My friend Lynne at Lusciously Loopy has an online wool shop, so put the pack selection colours together for me. Seventeen colours of Stylecraft Special DK. Then I was off!

I didn’t join the CAL that Lucy held over the Autumn/Winter of 2014/2015 – although some of the results from this were beautiful. So many people adapted it and tweaked it to suit their purposes and desires. Have a look here at some of them Lucy has shared. The pattern is such a simple and effective combination of trebles both single and triple clusters, in a glorious stripe combination. They ramble along, effortlessly, and are so soothing and melodic. It really was a joy. I was quite literally hooked on this pattern from the off. I started it on 29th May 2015.

Lucy’s combinations and careful planning mean that no two sequences are the same – despite using similar combinations of colours.

You can see how in the sunshine the colours really sing.

Work and crochet??!!

It went on holibobs with me to Somersault Festival, where there was some Elsie-van crochet action. Then to Dorset where there was going to be some beach crochet action but this happened…

In car crochet…

Crabbies and Crochet at Cambridge Folk Festival…

Snoozing and crochet at Cambridge Folk Festival…

I really cannot stress enough how much easier it is to deal with those pesky ends as you go…

Love the colours. Ahhh

Starting the border. Lucy does say that there may not be enough for the border, and as my tension is probably a little more loose than hers, I didn’t have enough. I had a spare bit of raspberry in my stash that got me through the first round.Then I was planning on using gold, claret and meadow.I ordered another ball of gold and petrol, I didn’t have enough claret but had lots of spare meadow from another project. I finalised the border with gold, meadow the petrol. I love the petrol as my last edge, but it is a thirsty round. Make sure you have enough!

So here it is. TA-Dah!!!! I love it. It’s a substantial size and weight – more than big enough for a single bed and super-cosy as the name suggests.

Isn’t it beautiful? So well balanced.

I love the way the border has definition and picks up the blue tones from the blanket. 

It will now have a place in my blanket pile, the ones I haven’t given away. I’m not good at giving them away as they take up so much time and effort. This blanket has been so therapeutic, helping me to recover, redress the stress balance and refocus my energies since my diagnosis.

I hope you enjoyed the colourfest that is Cosy Stripe Blanket. I’m going to use the pattern again I loved it so much. New colour combinations are waiting to be discovered. Will you do a cosy stripe blanket? You won’t regret it. :O)xxxxx