The Sweet Shop Blanket Pattern

The Pattern

Phew! And I say that with feeling. I’ve done it. Despite Fate chucking a

lot of stuff in my path to try to stop it or slow it down.

The Sweet Shop Blanket Pattern is finished. Woohoo!

My last post on here was in mid December, and at that time I was half way through designing and making the blanket. My plan was to finish it before Christmas, write up the pattern in the quiet weeks of the New Year and publish it at the end of January.

Well….. that didn’t happen. I’m a month late, which isn’t too bad, considering.

Christmas and New Year

We had a lovely family Christmas as usual. Everyone comes to us on Boxing Day for the annual ‘Bash’ and of course there are days of food prep beforehand. This year the twins were here for their first Christmas, which made it extra special. They had just started crawling, so it was fun and games keeping them from being trampled underfoot by all these adults! No babies were harmed though.

The whole thing was repeated the following weekend when most of the family were back here again for ANOTHER day of eating and partying. I was ready for some peace and quiet after that!

January

I spent the first two weeks of January working to finish making the blanket, and I also made a sample version in the second colour-way.

I cheated a bit with this, making enough of the blanket to photograph, when in fact it was only really a corner of the main one. Mid January, we were looking after our two older grandkids (13 and 10) for a few days, while their Mum and Dad were at a Trade Fair. I didn’t think it would hinder my pattern writing as they are old enough to do their own thing now. That was my plan anyway.

But just a few hours after they arrived, I found myself carting our 13 year old grandson off to hospital with suspected appendicitis (which it in fact turned out to be) and he had to have surgery. All thoughts of pattern writing were pushed to one side.

He did really well though, and was out of hospital in a couple of days, I’m glad to say. Their parents collected them a couple of days later and we put our feet up to relax and de-stress.

Two days later, I was back at work writing the pattern and filming the video tutorials as I went along. Things were going well – until Storm Eowyn blasted across the country. You can actually hear the storm in the background in one of the videos!

My UK friends will agree, it was a bad one, with relentless hurricane force winds all that day and night.

Quite a few mature beech trees came down in Silverburn woods, and one of them took down our power cables at the same time, so we were suddenly without electricity.

I did attempt to finish a video tutorial before the daylight faded that day, and I resorted to the light from my battery operated neck light!. You can see it popping into the screen in a couple of places in one of the videos😂😂

So, what happened NEXT?

Well, we were without power for three days in all, but luckily we have gas fires in the kitchen and living room, plus I could cook and heat water on our gas stove.

We had hot food and warmth, downstairs at least.

And OMG, the family all came back and stayed with us AGAIN – babies and all. My son brought the twins to stay because my daughter-in-law had to be away overnight with her Mum, who is poorly.

For Nick, bringing babies to a house with no power was preferable to coping with them overnight on his own, in a house WITH power!😂😂

Our daughter and family arrived too, because their house is all electric, so they had no heat or cooking facilities due to a power cut in their neck of the woods as well.

Rabbie Burns

That Saturday night was Burns Night – where we Scots celebrate the birth of our National Poet, Rabbie Burns. Traditionally we eat haggis, neeps and tatties, and recite some of his poems, lubricated with a dram or two of whisky.

Unfortunately we didn’t have any whisky other than whisky sauce, but I did manage to cook the haggis, neeps and tatties on the gas stove. PLUS a beef and veg casserole for those who didn’t like haggis. (Neeps, before you ask, are mashed turnip with a good dollop of butter).

We dined by candlelight, just as Burns himself would have done in the 18th century, and we had a lot of fun. Our ten year old granddaughter had been learning Burns poems at school, so she did the recitation.

No pattern writing though.…….

Sunday night at 10.30pm, the power came back on, just as we were getting used to the candles and fairy lights. Electric light can feel so harsh when all you’ve had are mellow flickering candles and strings of fairy lights for three days.

Normality returns, but not for long

The very next day I mentioned to my husband that I had a scratchy throat, maybe the start of a cold? He agreed he felt exactly the same.

And that was day one of what turned out to be twenty days of, not a cold, but the worst cough and chest infection either of us have ever experienced. The doctor agreed it was probably Covid, although it’s not in the guidelines to test for it anymore. The fact that we had both lost our sense of smell was a dead giveaway.

So we just had to endure it. Man, we’re not complainers and we don’t usually give in to viruses and bugs – you can’t when you’re self employed – but this was BAD.

I did try to keep up with the blanket making, but the pattern writing and filming were out of the question.

So February has come and gone almost entirely in a haze of antibiotics and cough pastilles.

Thankfully, we are both over it now and feeling 100% again, so I’ve finally been able to finish off writing the pattern and making the videos.

All those interruptions have taken their toll though. The pattern itself is fine, but you can see and hear the lighting and sound quality of the videos fluctuating with all the starting and stopping.

They are probably not going to be Oscar material, but it’s the best I could do given the circumstances, and the main thing is that they convey the information and help that’s required to accompany the pattern, so please don’t judge my film editing skills!

After all that…..

The pattern is here AT LAST – 23 pages of written instructions and lots of step by step photos, and there are both UK and US versions to choose from.

It’s suitable for confident beginners upwards, especially with the additional video tutorials to walk you through.

Within the pattern, there are two different colour options to choose from – the Pink/Lilac option, and the Blue/Brown option.

What’s more, there is also a second pattern contained in it, called THEO’S BABY BLANKET, again with the same two colour options.

This is a smaller, simpler version, originally designed and made as a gift for my niece’s new baby. This little blanket was what started it all in the first place.

The yarns I’ve used are YARNSMITHS PEBBLE HAZE AND CREATE, both DK weight. This is an absolutely gorgeous yarn – the colours are to die for. It is the own brand yarn of Wool Warehouse, so is only sold by themselves.

But Wool Warehouse will happily ship worldwide at a reasonable cost and reliably speedy delivery.

They have created Yarn Packs to make it easy to order.

The pattern is available in

my Etsy shop HERE

my Ravelry shop HERE

and also on Wool Warehouse who also sell the patterns, separately from the Yarn Packs.

This LINK will take you directly to my page on their site, and from there you can click on the separate buttons for Packs and Patterns.

The video tutorials are available on my YOU TUBE CHANNEL. Look for the Playlists button.

There has been a lot of interest in this pattern over the past few weeks, and I know that many of you have been patiently waiting, with yarn already purchased. The wait is finally over, and I’m so grateful to you all for not giving me a hard time.

It seems that every time I approach the finishing line of a new crochet pattern I start to crave doing something completely different.

While I’m film editing or sewing in ends, I’m daydreaming of clearing the garden, batch cooking or tidying out cupboards – all the mundane stuff that gets sidelined while I’m concentrating on getting the crochet job done.

But the reality is that as soon as I click ‘publish’ on the pattern, I’m upstairs in the studio, selecting yarns and filling a basket with them ready to start on something new! And the cupboard tidying just has to wait.

Right now I have NO IDEA what my next crochet project will be. You’ll just need to follow along with me to find out!

Meanwhile here are some more images of the Sweet Shop Blanket.

Happy crocheting!

Marion xx