I was asked recently to make a sampler style blanket...ie a blanket using all different stitches :) I love a bit of variety in my work and although I know there are patterns for these types of blankets out there I decided to see what I could come up with just by putting random rows of different stitches together myself. It's been a great challenge because you have to be very careful of stitch count all the way through. Different stitches have different multiples so a little bit of maths is required to make sure the stitches fit and the edges stay straight and I also had to take care with my right and wrong sides as not all stitches look the same on both sides. I have really enjoyed making it!
Quite a few people have asked me to share how I made it however I'm no pattern writer so the best I can offer you is a list of the stitches I did together with the colours I used. You may need to then do an internet search for full details of how to do stitches if some are unfamiliar to you. I made my blanket around 100x120cm with a foundation chain of 142 but it's really important to point out that this figure will not make all your different stitches work necessarily, you will still need to do lots of counting and put an odd stitch in here or miss an odd one there to keep your stitch count right. If you've counted right you will start with 139 stitches all the way along the bottom and 139 stitches all the way along the top! The other thing to note is that unless your tension is exactly the same as mine your blanket may measure slightly differently when finished.
The customer wanted rich, retro style colours so we agreed on Stylecraft Special DK in Plum. Magenta, Walnut, Copper, Gold, Parchment, Cream, Mustard, Teal and Sage
So here is the run down of the different rows (UK terms throughout)
NOTE: RS = right side WS = wrong side
- 2 x rows of trebles in Teal
- 2 x rows of granny stripe in Magenta
- 1 x row of granny stripe in Parchment
- 1 x row of trebles in Walnut
- 1 x row of kiss stitch (2 crossed trebles) in Mustard
- RS 1 x row half trebles in Copper
- RS 1 row trebles in Cream in Camel Stitch fashion (working in third back loops)
- 1 x row of trebles in Sage
- RS 1 x row of bobbles in Gold
- RS 1 x row of half trebles in Cream
- 1 x row of half trebles in Cream
- 1 x row of trebles in Plum
- 1 x row of V stitch in Mustard
- 1 x row of V stitch in Teal
- 1 x row of half trebles in Magenta
- Next two rows are in star stitch in Cream starting on the RS
- 1 x row of half trebles in Walnut
- 1 x row of trebles in Copper
- 1 x row of kiss stitch in Mustard
- 1 x row of half trebles in Plum
- 1 x row of granny stripe in Sage
- I x row of granny stripe in Teal
- 1 x row of granny stripe in Sage
- RS 1 x row of half trebles in Cream
- RS 1 x row of half trebles in Gold in Camel stitch fashion
- RS 1 x row of trebles in Walnut in Camel stitch fashion
- 1 x row od double crochet in Magenta
- 1 x row of trebles in Mustard
- The next 4 rows make up harlequin stitch in Parchment, Copper and then Parchment
- 1 x row of double crochet in Parchment
- RS 1 x row of half trebles in Sage
- RS 1 x row of trebles in Plum in camel stitch fashion
- WS 1 x row of a textured stitch (1dtr, 1dc, repeat) in Mustard
- 1 x row of trebles in Teal
- 1 x row of Kiss stitch in Magenta
- 1 x row of kiss stitch in Cream
- 1 x row of half trebles in Walnut
- 1 x row of trebles in Gold
- 1 x row of double crochet in Parchment
- 1 x row of granny stripe in Plum
- 1 x row of trebles in Sage
- RS 1 x row of bobbles in Cream
- 2 x rows of half trebles in Mustard
- 1 x row of trebles in Copper
- 1 x row of half trebles in Parchment
- 1 x row of granny stripe in Teal
- 1 x row of granny stripe in Sage
- 1 x row of granny stripe in Teal
- RS 1 x row of half trebles in Magenta
- RS 1 x row of half trebles in Cream in camel stitch fashion
- RS 1 x row of trebles in Wanut in camel stitch fashion
- 1 x row of V stitch in Gold
- 1 x row of trebles in Teal
This made up half of the blanket - I then repeated this list starting with the Magenta granny stripes ending with 2 rows of trebles in Teal
The border needed to be simple so as not to overshadow the rest of the blanket so I chose parchment and cream.
I did one round of half trebles, followed by one round of double crochet, another round of half trebles, followed by another round of double crochet all in Parchment. I then did one round of double crochet in Cream and finished with a Cream crab stitch edging
I hope that has all made some sense. Apologies that I can't go into a bit more detail with how to do the stitches etc. Writing patterns/tutorials is quite a time consuming task and not one I'm particularly good at! I'm not a crochet designer at all, I just like to experiment but if you are inspired to make a blanket exactly like mine (if you can figure it out from my waffle above!) it's always nice to get a little mention for the inspiration :)