You'll have to bear with me on this one. It's been three years since I made this blanket and I'm really hoping I've remembered the colours right!
This blanket was another one of those makes that I worked on in between orders to satisfy my creative urge. When you are making the same things over and over I find it good to have an in between project on the go that I've chosen myself just to keep things interesting.
I'm often asked how long it takes me to make a blanket. Difficult one to answer because there are many variables the most obvious being size....the bigger the blanket, the longer it takes to make! This one took a few months because I just had an odd half hour here and there to add a row or two. If I'm making a customer order I can usually turn them around in a few weeks but again it's depending on size and even style, as some styles take longer than others. It also depends on how busy I am at the time. It's a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string question'!
I don't work exclusively on one thing either, I rotate several orders at a time again to keep things interesting, I think that's why it maybe seems like I get a lot done in a short space of time when in fact I might have been rotating things for several weeks it's just that that particular rotation group might all seem to get finished around the same time giving the illusion of getting 5 blankets done in a week. I'm quick but I'm not that quick! I can assure you though that it is just me here! No employees, no elves, no sorcery!
Back to the blanket! When I'm looking for a bit of inspiration for my 'in between' project I consult my Pinterest boards for something I might have pinned months back while laying in bed at midnight and this is where I first came across the Juicy Fruits pattern.
I wanted to do a rainbow but not the usual bright one, a more muted version. I used Stylecraft Special DK in Claret, Gold, Meadow, Denim and Plum and alternated each row with Cream. I love the way the stitches in this pattern look like little ballerinas! Lots of texture and it creates quite a dense fabric so you might want to go up a hook size from your normal DK one. I think I used a 4.5mm for this.
A nice simple cream double crochet border finished it off lovely. Great unisex blanket combo this one! I desperately want to make another using this pattern.....however I already have around four 'in between' makes on the go so I should probably get them done first!