John and Adrienne’s Engagement Blanket

Hello, it’s been a while!

Lately I’ve been spending my time ‘vlogging’ instead of ‘blogging’ over on my You Tube channel but it’s good to be back here, writing for you instead of talking to you for a bit.

Before I start, a quick heads up that it’s worth reading to the end. There is a freebie there for you!

I’ve been covertly working on a new blanket over the past few weeks, trying like mad to finish it in time for a special occasion – and I’m pleased to say I made it by the skin of my teeth!

The Engagement

Back in the summer, my nephew John took his lovely girlfriend Adrienne off to Copenhagen on holiday. He had meticulously planned it in order to ‘pop the question’, as it’s one of Adrienne’s favourite cities. He chose a park as the sun was getting low ( the magic hour) and had booked a photographer to capture the moment. What a romantic!

So a few weeks ago, we all received an invitation to an informal engagement party with their family and friends. Who knew 50 or 60 twenty somethings could make so much noise just chatting! It was deafening, but then this oldie is unused to social gatherings these days!

But so much fun, and Adrienne was wearing a beautiful fully beaded mini dress that she said weighed a ton.

With just a few weeks’ notice I had decided to whip up a blanket as a gift for them and present it at the party. As you do…

The Colour Palette

First, I asked my sister to send me a photo of John’s living room so I could base the colour palette on his decor, and then assembled a basket of yarn.

You can see that it’s basically teals and soft turquoise with neutral beiges, going up to coffee and dark brown.

The Start – Blanket Number one

So end of September, with my basket of yarns with me in the cottage in Blair Atholl for a few days, I made a start.

A FALSE start, as it turned out.

My initial plan was to do a striped blanket – thinking it might look more on trend for the twenty something age group.

I went back to a favourite stitch of mine, the beautifully textured ELIZABETH STITCH , which I had used in one of the blankets in my free Baby Blanket Collection.

But this time it just wasn’t doing it for me. I have to admit it, striped blankets are not my thing. The stitch is gorgeous and easy to do, but the endless long rows…oh no. Also the coloured stripes kept reminding me of those cheap looking acrylic jumpers that men wore in the 70’s and 80’s. You might remember the kind of thing –

My Dad had a few and they weren’t even as aesthetically pleasing as these ones! And now I come to think of it, my next door neighbour has been seen sporting one, usually when he’s working on his car!

The Restart – Blanket Number Two

Anyway, boring stripes and old men’s jumpers meant that Blanket Number One was pulled back into neat balls of yarn, and Blanket Number Two was begun.

Sorry to say, that didn’t fare any better. I kept the Elizabeth Stitch, but decided to make large plain coloured squares based on the idea of a simple patchwork quilt instead.

This time the even amounts of the colours annoyed me, and it was back to the drawing board. But really I was just hankering after my beloved Granny Squares, wasn’t I?

Finally – Blanket Number Three

And there was my answer! However, all that faffing and pulling out meant that there was just over two weeks left to make Blanket Number Three!

But when you know you’re on the right track, things fall into place easily. Or then again, maybe not.

No, Blanket Number Three wasn’t entirely ripped out but a good third of it was, when I decided I’d gone too dark with the colours at one bit.

Because of all this time wasting, I had to make the hard decision that writing a pattern for it was not an option. I knew that the colour scheme would probably be really popular and people would expect a full written pattern to come out of it, but I simply didn’t have the time.

I pushed on and put the last stitch in the border just a day before the party. Enough time to sew in the ends, give it a pamper wash and get it dry and gift wrapped. Phew.

John and Adrienne loved their new blanket I’m pleased to say, and John sent me a photo of a slightly fragile Adrienne cosied under it the morning after the party.

I think it has met the brief of blending into their decor!

Now I know I have disappointed some of you who were expecting a pattern. And I know that some have even bought the yarn in anticipation, so that makes me feel bad.

So now that the dust has settled I’ve been thinking about what I could do as a compromise for you.

It won’t be a pattern. To do that would mean making a second blanket and I’d really rather move on to something new.

But if you read to the end of this post, there might be a little treat for you.

Meanwhile, here are some photos of the blanket. It looks rather good on my duck egg sofa and is equally at home on Adrienne’s oatmeal sofa, so I have a feeling it will match quite a lot of people’s colour schemes.

Finally, I’ve put together a few pages for you. NOT A PATTERN mind, more a pictorial description of each part of the blanket.

There is also a Yarn List, but I haven’t detailed the exact placement of the colours, as I usually do.

I have however, linked a Video Tutorial for each section. The videos have been pinched from other blanket patterns of mine, but they should be appropriate here too.

You can download this (what will I call it?) NON PATTERN – and even print it off. But note, the video links will only work from the pdf file rather than the printed version, so you would need to refer back to that.

Here is the link to the Non Pattern – https://woolthreadpaint.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Engagement-Blanket.pdf

I hope this compromise works to enable you to make an Engagement blanket of your own, if you want to. I think if you’ve made one of my blanket patterns before and know roughly how they are designed, you should find it quite simple.

A couple of disclaimers though –

1. As this is not a paid pattern and is really a private family design of mine, I will ask you not to sell a finished version of the actual blanket. You are welcome to make it for yourself, or as a gift.
2. As always, the design, text and photos on this blog, as well as on the file, are the copyrighted intellectual property of Marion Mitchell and should not be shared or used without permission.
3. Please don’t crochet the blanket, then write your own version of the pattern for resale, or publication on another website.
4. And finally, as this is a not a paid pattern I want to preserve my old brain and kindly ask that you don’t come to me for help if you decide to make it and then get stuck. That might sound like I’m being a bit of a grump (maybe I am) but I want to avoid the influx of emails and messages. I have a feeling that could happen since there is no detailed written pattern to refer to. You’re on your own guys! Hope you understand.

Thanks so much for your interest in my Engagement blanket and for reading my blog post to the end. I’m now looking forward to starting a few new projects, and as usual I’ll take you along with me every step of the way.

From deepest darkest Fife, Scotland on this late afternoon in November – Bye for now xx