Winter Berry Blanket

 I meant to pop in last week to tell you that I've written up how I made my Woodland Walk Blanket (based on Lucy's cosy stripe blanket) and that it has its own dedicated page.  (Can you see it there at the top of the screen?) I also went back to my Rippling Clusters Blanket page and wrote a bit more about how it evolved and was made - and what went wrong! - as well as straightening the edge and adding a border .
But today I'd like to show you my new blanket which I'm calling my Winter Berry Blanket and will be for my Folksy Shop.

Again this is based on the cosy stripe blanket, with my little tweak as in the Woodland Walk, but with an another tweak! (It also has its own Ravelry page.)
As I mentioned before, I bought the wool in a sale and it was all they had left. I wanted five colours but the 5th colour I chose  they only had one left; so I had to adapt the pattern or I would run out before the blanket was long enough. I decided to work four 2 row stripes, one of each colour, then for the 5th stripe I went off piste and worked a row of small bobbles. Just one row, not two.

Always worked from the same side the bobbles (or bumps, they're so small) are the ones that appear in the Circle  of Friends blanket square by Patricia Hewitt. It's a very simple little bobble  - you work *a double crochet, then you do a double treble, then a double crochet *, and repeat to the end of the row. (The double treble stitch is worked into the centre stitch of each granny cluster of the row below.) The double crochet stitches make the tall double treble crochet stitches "squash down" and push out making little bumps. Very effective.

I did try a sample working two rows so that the bumps would appear on both sides of the blanket and I calculated how much wool that took and realised I wouldn't have enough with one ball, so I decided to stick with just one row so the bumps will always appear just on one side of the blanket. The opposite side will be relatively smooth.  It looks very effective and if I make this one again I'll buy enough wool so that I can make bumps on both sides.

The colour and texture of the yarn means that you can't really see the cosy stripe pattern but I don't think it would look better if it was either just rows of trebles or grannies. Stick with what you know works. 

Before I go,  have a look at the hyacinth I bought for work. The flower spike was still a  tight bud nestled down amongst the leaves when I bought it. A bit of water and warmth and it went beserk! I can't believe how fast it grew - the flowers opened just 10 days later! When I get back to my desk on Tuesday, it will be over....

But it brightened my desk for the week and the fragrance was fabulous too! See you again soon,  T 😉