Sweet Nothings Crochet: MY PEACOCK BLANKET

MY PEACOCK BLANKET

Yet another blanket pattern that is freely available via the Red Heart pages that was just too good to miss out on.

I actually am not too keen on motifs and granny squares – I love their creation and design (as that’s the lovely bit), but their joining and weaving in of ends and neat finish / presentation… oof, don’t quite like that bit!

One little end sticking somewhere and that’s it.. the whole project can look shabby – so I usually stay away from these two types of projects.

That said, off late I seem to have done a lot of these two projects.. and I’ve loved each and every one of them!

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The original pattern is called Retro Ornament Throw and is available at http://www.redheart.com/free-patterns/retro-ornament-throw (Photo below)

I have, however, tweaked it just a bit.. so I’ll just add my notes here and give you, yet again, choices n decisions

Materials used : Today I’ve used our lovely Indian Vardhaman millennium DK ply acrylic yarn with a 4.5 mm crochet hook

I made my blanket with the four peacock colours I could find, starting with a

Purple / Lavender centre, then a lovely Firozi (Turquoise) , followed by a bright yellow and ending my peacock feather with an Emerald green. I then finished this all off with a pure white like the designer has. White just brings the whole thing together, I think.

I mulled over the colour rounds and did two swatches, finally settling on my color combination.

Stitches used :

Starting slip knot : Here’s how you start with a slip knot. https://youtu.be/lJcqsVcs8cw

Starting slip knot 1 or the Sloppy Slip knot : This is a neat new way to start your work without a slip knot. https://youtu.be/YfC7KmGpifs

What is a slip stitch : Here is a neat video tutorial at https://youtu.be/weB3QNbA8Iw

What is a chain stitch ? Here is an easy video tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXx5ukBjKkY

Magic circle : To refresh your skill, please view this easy video https://youtu.be/ISC39yOqWro

Double Crochet : dc : yo, insert hk into st ; yo (3 lps on hk);

[yo, draw through 2 lps] twice. One dc made.

Check out the video at https://youtu.be/xdnjB27zpYo

Chainless start for Double Crochet : I dislike the ch-2 / ch – 3 start, and this is what I do to start my row of dc.

Check out the video at https://youtu.be/wskv3iTjRx0

Back post half double crochet : bphdc : Post stitches are stitches worked around the post of a stitch of the row below. Here is an easy video tutorial for the bphdc at https://youtu.be/9jJHgDX2MsE

How to work a picot stitch : Traditionally for a ch-3 picot, you work (ch 3, sl-st in 3^rd ch from hook). For a ch-5 picot, you will do (ch 5, sl-st in 5^th ch from hook).

Here’s a great video https://youtu.be/8s3zVaBcn4s

Abbreviations used :

lp(s) : Loop(s) sc : Single crochet

dc : Double crochet sp : Space

sl-st : Slip stitch sk : skip

st(s) : Stitch(es) hk : Hook

yo : Yarn Over ch : Chain
fdc : Foundation Double Crochet

bphdc : Back Post Half Double Crochet

sc-blo : Single crochet back loop only

Instructions :

The designer instructions are self-explanatory.

My notes here are only for the small start change, the use of the wonderful chainless dc start, and a finishing idea / difference, in making this a square blanket.

If you see the original pattern, we have a lovely wavy edged finish.

I felt this was ideal for an afghan. I am, however, using this pattern to create a smaller baby blanket , so this is my change for that.

I started with a magic circle instead of the ch 4 start… however, this is just a choice.

In Round 3, I worked my 2 dc in the ch-1 sps rather than in the hdc.

I am not sure if it’s my yarn or looseness of st, but the ch-1 sp was showing through when I followed designer instructions (and used the hdcs) , so I thought I’d use the ch-1 sp instead.

Strip : My strips are of 4 “ornaments” in one row, and 3 “ornaments” in the next row alternating till the end. I’ve done five rows in total.

My tweak here was to do a ch 5 start, then add on the first ornament, and end with a ch-6, turn and work sl-st in each ch, and then work sl-st in each st on the other side of the ornament.

So what does this mean ? The designer starts Round 1 with a ch 1.

I started with ch 5.

I then sl-st in the 3^rd trc (of the 4 set) and then worked all the way down till the end as per designer instruction. The designers then asks that we do a ch-5 and add on the next ornament. So continue that till you have as many ornaments as you want. At the end, I did a ch 6 , turn and working back on the ch-6 we’ve just done, sl-st in the next 5 ch (the 1^st ch being a turning ch).

So this way you start and end with a ch 5, and have your ornaments dangling in between on this first round.

Round 2 then starts (if you’re using my instructions) with a sl-st in the 1^st 5 chs, then working as per designer instruction till the ch-5 at the other end. I then did a dc in the first 4 sts, and 3 dc in that end st (thus helping us turn around neatly). Continue down the other side working the dc’s as per designer instruction till we reach our 1^st ch-5, and we do a dc in the last 4 dc, and 2 dc in that 1^st dc.

This way you have a longish end at both ends of this strip.

One other thing that I did was use the sts of Round 5 of the ornament, (which in my case is the emerald green round), when working this round. The first round of the strip is the sl-st round in white. That sits on top and gives our ornaments this lovely raised edge, so go under that stitch into the lower sts for this round.

Finally stitch explanation. In Round 1, we’ve done a set of 25 sts along one side, and then that ch 5 to add on the next ornament. So in this round, we will need to work on 25 sts.

(So initially I started with a row of 5 ornaments, found it was too large for the blanket size I wanted, and frogged it down to 4 ornaments on that centre row)

As I wanted a square blanket, I changed the order of attachment.

I figured that I needed only 4 ornaments to make up the width for my little blanket, so I thought of doing it this way – and I love the way this has turned out.

To make a larger square blanket, just start with more ornaments in that centre row and decrease as you go along.

This blanket could be finished as is.. but I want a small border – so here’s what I’ve done for the border.

Border : For our border I have thought of a shell-like finish, which also looks a little peacock-y.

Our border repeat is in multiples of 5.

Round 1 : sc in the 1^st st ;

*ch 5, sk next 4 sts , sc in the next st* ;

rep *to* all around till last 5 sts ;

ch 3, dc and join with a sl-st to the 1^st st.

(You are now in the centre of that last ch-5 sp)

Note : Ensure you have an even number of ch-5 sps.

Round 2 : sc in the 1^st ch-5 sp ; ch 5, (dc, ch 3, dc) in next ch-5 sp ;

*ch 5, sc in the next ch-5 sp ; ch 5, rep (to) in the next ch-5 sp* ;

rep *to* all around ;

ch 5 and join with sl-st to the 1^st sc.

We will now work in the ch-3 sps between the 2 dcs.

Round 3 : sc in 1^st sc ;

*ch 2, sk next dc , (3 dc, ch 3, 3 dc) in the next ch-3 space ;

ch 2, sk next dc , sc in next ch-5 space* ;

rep *to* all around ;

ch 2 and join with a sl-st to the 1^st sc.

We will use a 3-ch picot in the following round. So that’s (ch 3, sl-st into the 1^st ch) in each dc of this border round.

Round 4 : sc in 1^st sc ;

*ch 1, (dc in next dc, picot) ; rep (to) 2 times in the next 2 dc ; rep (to) 3 times in the next ch-3 sp ; rep (to) 3 times over the next 3 dc ; ch 1, sc in the next sc* ;

Rep *to* all around ;

ch 1, and join with a sl-st to the 1^st sc.

You now have several choices for your blanket.. and whatever you choose to do, you will have one really cute project at the end of it all

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You may want to take a look at these beautiful and unusual free blanket , afghan and granny square patterns as well

https://shyamanivas.blogspot.com/2019/02/b-is-for-crochet-motif.html