Well this has been the biggest blanket I've made to date! Slightly daunting when someone asks you if you would make them a king size blanket but I love a challenge and was made up that I would be using Priscilla Hewitt's fabulous Sunburst Square pattern as it is one of my favourites. I love this square and it's one I've used many many times over the years. It's also a square that is copied a lot too, I think there is some confusion that it is 'public property' perhaps a bit like the traditional granny square, which is why it seems to turn up as being designed by other people, sometimes even with a very slight name change, I've even seen people trying to sell it as their own, but the original square was designed by Priscilla years ago and she holds the copyright from 1998 as stated on her pattern and so therefore it is Priscilla and no one else who I will always credit for this square. She very kindly shares it for free on her website for everyone to use along with some other beauties.
My customer wanted earthy, autumnal tones so I put together Stylecraft Life DK in zing and stylecraft Special DK in mocha, khaki, meadow, copper, lime, and walnut with parchment as the joining colour. I have no idea how many balls of yarn I used!
I wasn't exactly sure how many squares I would need so I made one up first so I could measure it and get a rough idea and then I decided to make half of what I thought I would need and then review it once I'd joined up that half. The best advice I can give to anyone wanting to tackle a large blanket is to be quite methodical about it so I made up the sunburst circles and then did the squaring off. Before going any further I dealt with all the ends......I really didn't fancy leaving those until the end on this one!! Some I was able to crochet over but there were still 4 per square that needed weaving in. Once I'd got my big pile of squares I could then use the continuous join as you go method which I find both quick and minimises ends! Once I had joined half of what I thought I needed I did a size check by laying it on my own kingsize bed to make sure I'd estimated right and then I proceeded with making the remaining sunburst squares needed. Turned out I needed 156 (13x12).......that's 624 ends!!
I won't lie.....it seemed like it took forever and there were some days I really motored through those squares and then days where I just couldn't look at another one! Fortunately for me my customer was of the very patient kind and I had lots of other orders that I could rotate around it.....I find rotating things helps me to keep my focus.
We had already discussed that a striped border would be preferred and I decided that a simple granny stripe would suit the blanket. After a couple of rounds in parchment I used all the colours except zing in the border
This blanket took a lot of self discipline and I have enjoyed every second of making it. That last stitch really was happy dance worthy I'm really delighted with how it came out!
If you decide to make a sunburst blanket don't forget to mention Priscilla's original pattern