A Celtic Knot Granny Blanket

I would have liked to get back to the succulents but as my wrists improve I thought that what I needed was a nice easy blanket. I always find blanket very soothing to make which is just what is needed at present.

And so I devised a Celtic Knot Granny blanket

As you may have realised I love the look and thermal properties (all those holes!) of Granny blankets and they are so easy to do: so soothing to make with that rhythmic repetition of three trebles (US-dcs). You may have also noticed that when it comes to patterns that I create: I like easy.

My other great love of recent years has been all things Celtic: with bookmarks and coasters and even a hot pad, plus a bit of a trial of table mats and cushions and a napkin ring. More recently: a dip into Mosaic Crochet and blanket making.

So let us look at the blanket design in more detail

I decided to choose the colours based on my signature Celtic Coaster.

Luckily Stylecraft now has a colour called Boysenberry which proved to be a good version of the deeper pink. The other colours are Turquoise, Grass Green and Fondant.

The design needs you to make Granny Squares but also half and quarter Granny Squares. I am going to add an extension because I find rectangular blankets more useful. This requires making half and half Granny Squares.

Of course I am adding extensions because I am thinking single bed bedcover blanket. For a double bed a square version with larger basic squares would work very well.

I thought that I would share the design in case anyone else fancied making one

Really to make one all you need is the picture as there is information on making Granny Squares and half and quarter Granny Squares all over the place but I have been having fun putting together my own version of patterns for the component parts and plans and suggestions for alternatives. I have put all this on Ravelry in a pdf, for which there is a small charge.

Can be purchsed now on Ravelry here – https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/celtic-knot-granny-blanket

The pdf contains a discussion of making this sort of blanket, with some ideas for designing your own, all the patterns and plans needed plus instructions on what I think is the best sequence for the join-as-you-go method.

However next week I will be posting the plans and patterns needed to make the blanket as pictured. There will also be a colouring sheet pdf that you can download for for trying out different colour combinations.

This post is really a background look, plans and patterns to be provided in the next post

The information for extensions to make the blanket almost twice as long as it is wide will be provided, with a photograph of my whole blanket added later when I have completed it.

I also have plans, which I will share, for using the central portion of my Octagonal Coaster instead of the plait..

You could even make an octagonal blanket. Plan for that too.

So as a taster, here are some of my ideas along the way

First I thought about having a dark versus light background.

Celtic plaitwork is often shown on a dark background

and black can be quite striking in a blanket.

So I created a comparison.

And having thought about it decided that as this was going to be a bed blanket a light background would be more cheery.

I drew out versions in the colours of my favourite coasters.

Tried out a variety of possible back ground colours.

They are supposed to be (left to right, top to bottom) White, Parchment, Silver, Cream.

All Stylecraft Special DK colours, as I have the craft stick samples I made.

And for those of you that enjoy seeing such things.

Here is how my thoughts evolved from the mosaic design through to the plan for this one.

Slides are numbered so you can see the sequence.

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I have finished the central part and will be going on to add the extensions and then a border but this will not go as fast as I have other things I need to catch up on.

So here it is so far.

The above in Stylecraft yarn (not that I would recommend it, if you saw my last post.) should take almost one and a half of the background colour and just under one ball of the four main colours. With my planned extensions it should need about four balls of the background and about one and a half of each of the four main colours. It works out about 36 inches square and about 36 x 63 inches with the planned extensions. Of course by increasing (or decreasing) the number of rounds for the granny square and/or using a different yarn any size could be made.

However this is with only a minimal border. More yarn will be needed for whatever border you decide to add.