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

Stylecraft Special DK.

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

  by Priscilla Hewitt

is written in US crochet terms and

you can find the free written pattern

HERE

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

Stylecraft Special DK in

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

Priscilla Hewitt

and 

Cypress Textiles

 again these are written in US crochet terms.

I have written a tutorial in UK terms for the 

Continuous Flat Braid Join

As a compliment to the detailed lace join

 I chose a deep lace border,

from the book

Around the Corner by Edie Eckman.

This is an excellent border book written in US terms

with written patterns and charts too.

You can view it and buy it

HERE

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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