Blankets

Warm and Cool Blankets (Just Like the Weather)

adelheid27@yahoo.com

We’ve had a very mild winter in Western Pennsylvania. The joke here is that we say goodbye to the sun in November and don’t see it again until March. This year, winter couldn’t decide if it wanted to be winter, summer, or fall.

These two blankets are warm and cool–just like the weather.

Two blankets made using the Stardust Melodies pattern by Polly Plum.

This was my first true attempt at a “scrpghan.” Using yarn from my stash, I pulled colors at random for each square. I wanted to make a large blanket, so I made two of each square–sometimes using the same colors, sometimes different depending on my stash. I will admit to buying two colors, bu tthe rest is from the Caron Simply Soft yarn I had.

I chose the Stardust Melodies pattern by Polly Plum at Every Trick on the Hook. This paid pattern (on Ravelry) was a study in texture. I learned SO much from these patterns. They were excellently written with plenty of tips to make sure the squares turned out right. She even included instructions to join as you go, which I didn’t end up doing because I wasn’t sure of the color placement. I ended up joining with a slip stitch join on the reverse side, and I think I’ll be using it again and again.

This is what the slip stitch join looks like on the back. On the front it is nearly invisible.

As with all works in progress, sometimes plans change. I was originally planning on making one large blanket, but I just couldn’t figure out how to order my squares. The colors were so drastically differnt.

All 48 squares together.

It was my husband who had the genius idea: “Why don’t you make two blankets?” Thus my one large blanket became two blankets–one in warm colors and one in cool.

While neither blanket has all of the 24 different square patterns, there is so much variety that you could never take in all of the detail. As I was stitching this one, I thought that the texture would be great for someone with dementia, because it is kind of like a “fiddle blanket.” Also, in Simply Soft yarn, it weighs a lot, giving a comforting hug.

My warm colors: pinks, reds, yellows, oranges, and neutrals.
My cool colors: greens, blues, purples, neutrals.

The pattern also gave two options of borders. I chose the one with the bobble texture for the cream border because I didn’t think it would show up on the black. The black border is a simple moss stitch.

It took me a couple of months to make these. The most I could manage was about 2 1/2 blocks in one evening. I actually took to picking up my hook during the kids math lessons to keep the project going.

All in all, these are some of my favorite blankets to date.