The Seed Packet Blanket (and April Newsletter)

Blankets and Babies!

Hello everyone. This has been quite a month! My March Newsletter didn’t happen I’m afraid, because of course we started April with the Easter weekend.

Family gatherings with egg rolling and hunting just took over. It was a lot of fun, having everyone together, young and old. And the sun shone too!

The Seed Packet Blanket

I’m going to begin though, with the main crochet event.

This blanket has been my constant companion through the whole of March and the first half of April, but I’m delighted to say the Seed Packet Blanket is now finished.

What’s more, the pattern is written too, and is released to the world today! Hurrah!

More about that in a minute.

The Seed Packet Blanket Story –

which actually began as the Shandon Blanket story, back in 2018. Shandon?

To explain – my son and daughter in law had just bought a house in a pretty conservation area of Edinburgh, called Shandon.

I decided to make them a blanket as a housewarming gift, and so it became the Shandon Blanket.

It was one of my first blankets – remember, I only fell into this crochet world for the first time a year earlier!

But I very quickly latched on to the fact that blankets were going to be my ‘thing’. More so than amigurumi or garments. Not for me at all.

I had also discovered (and fallen in love with) the beautiful Batik yarn produced by Stylecraft.

I think I made four or five Batik blankets in quick succession that year, two of them being Shandons – one for Nick and Rebecca, and then one just for me.

Batik

It was/is a lovely yarn. I’m sure you’ll know it.

But sadly over the years, many of the colours in the range have been dropped. Why? I just don’t know.

I had a little pattern for the Shandon here on my blog, but it was impossible to keep updating it as colours were deleted. So it needed a total revamp.

Pebble Haze

And then, a few months ago a new yarn was born.

Seeing the first images of it appearing on Instagram made me curious. It’s very different to Batik in feel and texture. The fibre content is different for a start, being a cotton/acrylic mix as opposed to wool/acrylic. It works up differently too, although it’s the same weight.

And yet……..here was a yarn with a similar ‘watercolour’ effect as Batik. That’s the best way I can describe the washed look which blends the colours together so well.

The Pattern

I stocked up with all the Pebble Haze colours and decided to do a remake of the old Shandon, but with a few pattern changes.

Essentially the same pattern to begin with at least, but things like missing out unnecessary chain spaces, and replacing Double Trebles (not my favourite stitch) with Trebles, meant that the look was becoming different.

Then there were the new colours. Bolder and punchier than Batik, the reborn blanket was taking on a new identity with the Pebble Haze yarn. But I was LOVING it!

The stitch definition is divine. it’s soft and squishy. Easy to work with. Drapes like a dream.

Both the new blanket – and me – were loving this new yarn.

One day, as I was working on the centre section of flower squares, an image came into my head.

These squares reminded me of something, but I couldn’t think what. The image was too vague.

Then it clicked. I was thinking of flower seed packets – those displays in garden centres – racks of very brightly coloured packets of seeds – sunflowers and pansies, cornflowers and daisies.

Right there and then, the new Shandon Blanket turned into the all new Seed Packet Blanket!

I took my camera down to my local garden centre to see if I was right. And I do believe I was…..

I love it when a new project takes on a life of its own.

Springtime, new growth, flowerbeds and seed trays, raked earth, garden centres etc etc. It was all there in my head and just needed to be transferred to hook and yarn.

The new blanket is a now littler bigger, with a little more detail – a new border of flowers looking like they are popping through grass, a row of brightly coloured buds, and stripes of earthy soil.

It has been such a joy to work on, and I will be returning to Pebble Haze again, without a doubt.

Pattern and Yarn Packs

Like I said, the blanket is finished, and so is the pattern.

From today, you will find the Seed Packet Blanket pattern in my ETSY and RAVELRY stores.

And excitingly YARN PACKS containing all the Pebble Haze colours you will need for the blanket, are available from WOOL WAREHOUSE , with worldwide shipping. (Wool Warehouse is also selling the pattern).

Now before I move on to the Babies (ooh) part of this blog post, here is a little more informative blanket stuff –

1. Hook size 4mm (G).
2. Blanket measures 48 ins x 48 ins square.
3. 32 balls of Pebble Haze are needed . It comes in 50g balls.
4. There is an alternative yarn list in the pattern for Stylecraft Special DK, if anyone would prefer it.
5. There are two pattern versions – in UK and US crochet terms. Both come in the one Etsy or Ravelry purchase, so you can choose which one you prefer to download.
6. VIDEOS – yes, there are lots of them on my You Tube channel, specifically for this pattern. Just click the Playlists tab under my You Tube profile and you will find the Seed Packet Playlist.
7. Some will ask this – the patterns are written in ENGLISH only.
8. It’s suitable for CONFIDENT BEGINNERS, meaning if you are a beginner, but a confident one you will tackle it no bother!
9. And finally, there are 24 pages with more than 100 step by step photos.

Now it’s time for the babies!

I’ve quite surprised myself that I managed to get this pattern finished, when I originally set the deadline of April 29th, because my head has been full of other things.

On Friday April 12th just two weeks ago, the very same Nick and Rebecca (son and daughter in law) of Shandon fame, welcomed their twin daughters Eve and Imogen into the world.

In one fell swoop, my tally of grandchildren was doubled.

Eve was first, weighing 5lbs 8oz and two minutes later her little sister Imogen arrived, weighing 5lbs 3oz.

They are identical little cuties and have stolen the hearts of the whole family, although I have no idea yet which is which.

Here are some proud Granny pics –

Babies mean Blankets – and Hats – and Cardigans

Back in January, my now ‘big’ granddaughter, nine year old Leighla, and I set to work to make a pom pom garland for the new babies.

While Leighla was making the pom poms, I made up a pile of granny squares, with the intention of making a baby blanket.

We were using up some of the huge pile of discontinued Deramores yarn in my stash.

But the baby blanket plan was stalled, partly because the Seed Packet took over my time, and partly because of the realisation that one wouldn’t be enough. There would be two babies to keep cosy!

Fast forward to two weeks ago, when they arrived. It became clear that these babies didn’t have a cosy blanket between them.

Shock, horror – me, who churns out blankets by the dozen, hadn’t even finished one for them.

So in the middle of pattern writing, I dropped everything and crocheted those granny squares together into a blanket.

One at least was finished. It was delivered last Friday and now one baby is warm when they go out for their walk.

It was such a rush job I didn’t take any decent photos of it, but there is just a glimpse of it here –

and also this work in progress image, taken in poor light, so the colours are way off but you get the idea.

Meanwhile, the other twin is cosied under her daddy’s shawl, which was knitted for him forty years ago by my godmother.

It annoys my tidy mind that they are side by side in their bassinets without matching blankets, so my next task, now that the pattern is off my hands, is to turn this basket of leftovers into blanket Number Two!

Lastly, I may be quite the expert at crochet blankets, but as for knitting or crocheting baby clothes, I’m way down the league table.

I used to knit a lot of things for my own children, but that is now a very rusty skill.

I started and then abandoned, two knitted cardigans and one crocheted effort (wrong yarn in two cases, ridiculously difficult pattern in the other, which put me off when I realised I had to make TWO!)

Finally, I found a You Tube video by Maisie and Ruth whose patient and gentle Scottish accent was just what I needed to guide me through her simple little pattern.

Especially so, since the only time left for me to make these wee cardigans was very very late at night!

They are nothing to be proud of, and they were just made from a couple of odd balls of baby yarn that were in my stash.

But they will keep the babies warm, once they grow into them, and I’m happy that another project was finished this month!

As I said, quite a month!

Now that the frenzy of April is almost over, and the pattern done and dusted, I have a strange notion to spring clean the house from top to bottom, but don’t worry that will soon disappear.

There is another basket of yarn in the studio, which I collected together a while ago.

It is the colour palette for my next blanket – the Christmas Blanket for 2024 – and I’ll most likely just launch straight into that!

The cobwebs can wait.

Happy crocheting in the month of May,