I made this blanket for a friend’s 70th birthday. She loves spending time in the garden and has recently had a new patio added. I wanted to give her a gift that fit with her love of the garden and would be pretty and practical. This blanket will provide cosiness at breakfast on chilly mornings or when enjoying tea and cake on a spring afternoon. It will probably also end up being used in fort building missions with the grandkids!
This is not a full pattern, but just a vague guideline of how I went about making my blanket. It’s essentially a big granny square, and there are so many wonderful tutorials out there for granny squares I really don’t need to write another one! I’ve given slightly more detail for the border, but assume that you’ll have enough knowledge to make my vague instructions fit with your version of the blanket. If you find you want more detail, drop me an email (laura[at]goslingandplumb.co.uk) and I’ll do what I can to help!
I used a 6mm hook and Stylecraft Special Chunky in Parchment, Pistachio, Meadow, Sage, Storm Blue, Denim, Plum and Raspberry. I used one ball of each colour, with 4 balls of Parchment as the ‘in between’ rows.
I wanted a very slightly rectangular blanket, so started with 6 treble groups on my first round.
Chain 6 and join with slip stitch to make a circle. Chain 3 (counts as 1 treble) 2 trebles, 1ch, 3tr, 2ch, 3tr, 2ch, 3tr, 1ch, 3tr, 2ch, 3tr, 2 ch and join with slip stitch to top of beginning chain.
Continue working as a granny square/rectangle, alternating between colours and Parchment until you have worked each of the colours twice.
For the border I continued to use the colours but without the Parchment rounds in between.
Pistachio – granny round (into the spaces of previous round).
Meadow – treble round (work 1 treble in each stitch along the sides with 3tr, 2ch, 3tr at each corner).
Sage – granny round (work a treble group in the first corner, skip one stitch, *treble group in the next st, skip 2 stitches,* repeat along the side, skipping one stitch at the end before working 3tr, 2ch, 3tr in the corner).
Storm Blue – treble round (work 1 treble in each stitch along the sides with 3tr, 2ch, 3tr at each corner).
Denim – half treble round (work 1 half treble in each stitch along the sides with 2htr, 2ch, 2tr at each corner).
Plum – half treble round (work 1 half treble in each stitch along the sides with 2htr, 2ch, 2tr at each corner). This round was a close call – I only just had enough to finish the border with a very little bit left over! If you find you’re getting close to running out of yarn, switch to a smaller hook (tip from the wonderful Jean, the Creative Pixie). Or you could work the round as doubles instead, it’s up to you.
Raspberry – slip stitch round (work 2dc in the first corner, slip stitch under back and bottom loops of each stitch along the side [see photos for where I mean] with 2dc, 1ch, 2dc in each corner).
You’d normally work under the front and back loops…
…but work through the back and bottom loops instead.
Back and bottom loops seen from the back
Hook under back and bottom loops, yarn over, draw yarn through all three loops on hook.
The slip stitches should sit flat and slightly to the back of the previous row.
Obviously, you could make this blanket as big or small as you like and would work just as well as a baby blanket or a kingsize bedspread! Just adjust the weight of yarn or number of rounds to make whatever size you need. Have fun experimenting!
If you make a blanket using this pattern, I’d love to see it – tag me on social media or post a link back to this page, easy!
