The Aqua Sunburst Blanket

When my customer said that she'd quite like a turquoise blanket as she didn't know if she was having a boy or a girl I was very excited as this meant that once again I would get to work with Cygnet's beautiful Aqua shade. I just love this particular shade of turquoise, it is so so nice! Initially my customer was swaying towards a daisy style blanket however as it needed to be gender neutral I suggested the sunburst square pattern as a good compromise. The main part is more circular so it wouldn't look quite so girly but still had the potential to be mistaken for daisies. Together we decided on mustard colour centres (Cygnet DK in Barley), the second round in a lighter blue shade (Stylecraft Special DK in Duck Egg) and white for the third round (I used Stylecraft Special DK in White) All the sunbursts were to be exactly the same and joined with the turquoise colour (Cygnet DK in Aqua).....when I visualised it I could see it would really work :)

I've used the Sunburst square pattern lots of times, the original pattern is by Priscilla Hewitt and you can find it free on her website. My blanket needed to be around 70 x 90cm so I made 63 sunbursts and then I've used the continuous join as you go method which is a nice quick method that avoids the need to weave in lots of ends. There are lots of tutorials for this method online, just type it into Google and voila!

A little word about hook size and how many squares......I get asked a lot about what hook size I use and how many squares to make for a blanket. Hook size varies depending on the yarn I use, the stitch I'm doing and what it is I'm making. I used a 4mm for this blanket but natural tension does vary person to person so its best to try different hook sizes until you find what suits you. As for how many squares the best thing to do is make one up, again tension varies so measure it and then work out from that how many you will need to achieve the blanket size you want. My customer wanted a simple, non frilly border so I just did a couple of rounds of UK dc and then gave it a nice crisp white crab stitch edging. I loved making this blanket, I wanted to keep it!!! On the plus side it is going to an old work colleague of mine so I will be chasing her for pictures of this blanket in action once her bundle of joy arrives!

I'm not a crochet designer, I just like to experiment, however I'm always really touched when someone takes the time to mention a blanket I've made as an inspiration for their blanket. Most importantly though make sure you reference Priscilla for the pattern that she very kindly shares for free. 

You can buy Cygnet DK yarn at a great price from my friend Laurelin at Snufflebean Yarn

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Thank you, Faye x

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