Nov 03, 2016

More Blanket, More Better

Neat Ripple Blanket by Lucy of Attic24

We just filled out our palette of Berroco Comfort in the worsted weight. While we tend to all love our hand-dyed wool yarns, Berroco Comfort is such a great (and affordable) yarn for blankets. It can be machine washed and dried, which makes it especially practical for baby blankets. We seem to go through phases of blanket peer pressure at Twisted. The first bandwagon we all unexpectedly jumped on a couple years ago was that of the Neat Ripple blanket by Lucy of Attic24. Most of us Twistedistas are knitters first and foremost, so it was fun to learn a new craft. Between a few of us, I would say we have completed about 10 fairly large ripple blankets! They are addicting. It seems you really can’t ever have enough. Just ask Courtney.

What is great about this particular pattern, is you can choose as few or as many colors as you wish. Five t0 seven colors seems to be the most visually interesting. You can do a striped pattern, or choose colors at random as you move along. As with most striped projects, you just want to start in the next stripe… and then the next one… It’s very ~~addicting~~ motivating.

Here is an group of colors I was playing around with today:

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Finding a handful of colors that look good together can feel daunting to a lot of people. Here are a couple tricks:

1) Odd numbers. It’s a basic rule of design thumb. This is not hard and fast. Sometimes a pattern calls for an even number. Or sometimes you only want what you want.

2) You can stick with one color family and do a monochromatic scheme. It can be really pretty to have different values of the same color. Ombre is in!

3) Neutrals. When in doubt, you can through in a neutral. Greys are my go-to, but browns, oatmeals, etc. will also do the trick.

4) To add interest, choose a mostly monochromatic palette, but throw in one color that pops off the rest. For example, if you are using turquoises and teals, throw in an orangey color for interest.

In the above color combo, I have combined those ideas. Seven colors, 3 neutrals, 3 different values of the teal family, and a pop of yellow.

Chevron Baby Blanket by Espace Tricot

The Chevron Baby Blanket by Espace Tricot is another fun blanket to try. This blanket is knit rather than crocheted, but achieves a similar ripple by using a simple chevron pattern. This blanket recommends 5 colors, but again, you can use as few or as many as you’d like. I stuck with five:

One more favorite of mine, which is great for beginner knitters, is the Super Easy Lap Blanket by Purl Soho. There is also a baby blanket version of this pattern. It is super easy to adjust to whatever size you would like it to be. Just cast on more or less and knit until you run out of each color. Nice, simple, color block pattern.