Hello and welcome to Patchwork House . . . . .
my little corner of the world in England, where you will find me addicted to colour and playing with yarn!


11 August 2016

The Peacock Blanket

The Peacock Blanket
 was designed as an exercise in ombre crochet
 to provide opportunity for playing with colours
 and to showcase the wonderful colour palette
 from Stylecraft Yarns of over 80 shades of



Ombre is a French word meaning
 the gradual blending of one colour hue to another.
I chose to start with the deepest hue
working outwards to the palest.


With 6 shades needed to make 1 square
 the Circle of Friends is a perfect pattern to illustrate this.
 I have used 6 shades for the 8 rounds
 as rounds 3&4 and also 6&7 use the same colour.
(Round 9 will be made in the joining colour)

The wonderful Circle of Friends square
is written in US crochet terms and
you can find the free written pattern


Blues and greens are such a restful colour palette
 and they blend easily from one to the other.
 Starting at the purple end of the blues,
moving through the cold blues into turquoise,
then the aqua into green, the forest greens
and finally into the jungle greens.


After much experimentation and fun playing with my shade squares,
I arrived at 9 different squares for my ombre blanket.
Top Row ~ left to right 1 2 3
Middle Row ~ left to right 4 5 6
Bottom Row ~ left to right 7 8 9


Colour Recipes

1 ~ midnight, royal, lobelia, bluebell, lavender, parma violet

2 ~ bottle, khaki, cypress, meadow, sage, duck egg

3 ~ empire, denim, aster, turquoise, cloud blue, sherbet

4 ~  petrol, storm blue, denim, aster, cloud blue, duck egg

5 ~ teal, empire, turquoise, aspen, sage, sherbet

6 ~ green, kelly green, grass green, lime, pistachio, spring green

7 ~ khaki, cypress, meadow, lime, pistachio, spring green

8 ~ midnight, royal, lobelia, denim, aster, cloud blue

9 ~ bottle, teal, sage, aspen, sherbet, duck egg


The pattern has 9 rounds.
I used colours for rounds 1- 8 and
 then my joining and border colour silver for round 9.


Once the squares were all edged in silver and all the ends sewn in,
 I used the flat braid join to make them into a blanket.
I like to work in a continuous fashion
 joining all the squares in 1 go from start to finish,
to avoid adding more ends to sew in.

There are many good patterns around,
 some I have learnt from are by


and 


 again these are written in US crochet terms.

I have written a tutorial in UK terms for the 



As a compliment to the detailed lace join
 I chose a deep lace border,
from the book

This is an excellent border book written in US terms
with written patterns and charts too.
You can view it and buy it


So here we have it
The Peacock Blanket
in all its glory, a feast of colour texture and pattern!

I have used 36 squares in a 6 x 6 arrangement,
 4 of each of my 9 colour ways.

It would be very easy to make the blanket bigger
by increasing the number of squares used
and it can be varied by using just a few of the colour combinations.
 All 9 are not needed,
 you can pick and choose whichever colour recipes
you like and arrive at a unique blanket of your own choice!


Finally the washing machine!
Yes I hear you all groan and shudder!
One of the most FAQ I am asked is
why and how I wash blankets.

Washing increases the softness of the yarn
 and tumble drying adds a really special quality!
 Simply follow the instructions on the ball band and you cant go wrong!
 I wash at 30 degrees using my usual soap powder and fabric softener,
 then tumble dry on LOW.
Another FAQ is how do I block my squares . . . well I don't!
They are flat off my hook and easy to join,
 but I find the washing process does help to block
 the completed blanket and make the joins sit nice and flat.

So there you have it
 the tale of the Peacock Blanket!


Happy hookin!

Heather

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7 comments:

Unknown said...

So much wonderful information!! This Peacock blanket is another work of art!! Thank you for the color recipes. Looking forward to the flat braid join tutorial. I haven't been able to do anything except single crochet to join.

Bernice said...

A beautiful piece of work. Thank you for sharing your colour palate. I too have only ever joined my squares with a single crochet so I'm really looking forward to trying the flat braid join.

Janice said...

Beautiful colours, and thanks for the links. I bought the border pattern book, after seeing your recommendations. A very handy book to have. Janice http://createdbyjan.blogspot.com

Pamela said...

Your colors are just beautiful and that join makes it look so perfect. Never saw that join before - I must try it!!

Elly D said...

Absolutely beautiful! Thank you for sharing your colours too :)

janice15 said...

Your blanket is so lovely. The colors are amazing such a wonderful job. Thanks for sharing with love Janice

Angela said...

You have inspired me to give this a go as the colours and design are so beautiful. Thank you Heather for taking the time to write such an easy to follow tutorial. I am worried abut all the ends and noticed on FB that you promised to provide a tutorial on how you hide your ends. Hope I haven't missed it? Angela x

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