Dune Blanket :: Ta-dah!

Hellooooooooo, and welcome to my happy place where I'm very excited to be sharing a breezy coastal ta-dah moment with you all!!! I imagine you all know by now that today is the day for my Dune blanket to be given a bit of a smooch, and quite honestly I've been hopping with excitement this past week as I've finished off my blanket (yeah, I only completed it a week ago) and worked hard on creating the pattern to share. 

You might recall me introducing you to the Dune blanket at the end of March when I returned from a gorgeous short family jaunt to one of my most favourite coastal spots - St Annes on the Fylde coast. You can read all about my holiday ((here)) and read more about the inspiration behind my Dune blanket ((here)).

As you can see from the above collection of photos, my Dune blanket is all about the colours of coastal sand dunes, shoreline adventures and shell collecting. I wanted to bring all those breezy, happy feelings together into a colour palette which is soft and cool, like the tang of salty sea air on a cold Spring day.

When I was in St Annes at the end of February, I spent lots of time wandering the strand line with the family, collecting things which caught my eye and playing about with different colour ideas. I had the notion that I wanted to try and capture the essence of this seaside place where I love spending family time, creating a colour palette that not only described the physical aspect of the coast, but also the emotion of it. I thought : "light, airy, breezy, soft, joyful colours, like a chilly gust of salty fresh air followed by a warm hug" - that's the essence of this place for me. I've written a lot more about my creative process and shared loads of photos in my Dune Introduction post.

I took lots of photos at the seaside holiday house where we were lucky enough to be staying for a few days in February. It has these wide, white painted windowsills which were perfect for arranging things. I was so happy in my own little creative bubble, spending hours lining things up, photographing them, rearranging them and faffing to my hearts content.

After a major amount of creative faffery, I finally settled on fifteen shades of Stylecraft Special DK  to create my Dune palette.

I love the gentle harmony of them and the way that each and every colour holds a significance for me. There are the pale greens of the marram grass, the warm neutrals which represent driftwood, sand dunes and the rippled wet sandy beach, the blues and pale greys of a cold spring sky and the softest of pinks which come from the sea shells I collected.

As is usual for my blankets, I've chose fifteen shades of Stylecraft Special DK for my Dune blanket.

This is enough to make a single/twin size blanket measuring approximately 120cm x 180cm.

Top row, left to right...

♥ Mocha ♥ Pale Rose ♥ Parma Violet ♥ Storm Blue ♥ Sage ♥

Middle row, left to right...

♥ Camel ♥ Mushroom ♥ Silver ♥ Cloud Blue ♥ Spearmint ♥

Bottom row, left to right...

♥ Stone ♥ Powder Pink ♥ Parchment ♥ Duck Egg ♥ Lincoln ♥

You can find the Dune yarn pack in my shop at Wool Warehouse, click on the link below...

DUNE YARN PACK

The yarn pack also contains a 10-page full colour pattern.

Do you like the shells? I crocheted these up in a fit of spontaneous creativity one afternoon, satisfying a craving for something decorative to come flying off my hook.

I found the shell pattern free online - it's a design by Ramsi Leigh who writes her blog {Ramsileigh Designs}. The pattern is actually the beginning part of some bigger crochet sea shells which Ramsi designed as coasters.

I worked round 1 as Ramsi wrote it to make the middle circle (a combination of UK dc, htr and tr), then continued the spiral with round 2 but working in the Back Loops Only. Crocheting in back loops only creates a little ridged line of single loops which defines the spiral shape beautifully - I love it!  If you are going to make these shells, please note that the pattern is written using US terms - the tallest stitch I crocheted was a US treble (this is a UK double treble) - I stopped after this part of the pattern and didn't bother to work the even taller stitches. So in round 2, I worked (2 UK tr) x 4 and (2 UK dtr) x 6, then fastened off.

I love them very much.....I'm still deciding what to do with them, but I'm swaying towards some pretty summer shell bunting for my mantel. I've got some gorgeous little mother of pearl shell buttons which would go really well with these crochet shells.

Having my big baggy yarn bag full of new colours with a fresh, exciting new blanket journey about to begin is one of my greatest pleasures. It makes me so ridiculously happy!

I always spend a long time on the pattern sampling stage, and I have a whole motley pile of discarded stitch samples to prove it. I tried out some wavy things and some ripply things, but nothing seemed quite right. In the end it was the shell idea that my mind seemed to really fixate on, so I went with it and ended up with a whole slew of shell-type samples. 

I settled on a delightful variation of a shell pattern where the stripe is worked in two rows - first you create a row of v-stitches, then you infill the v-spaces with shells - it really is a beautiful pattern to crochet. This pattern creates a delicious texture, and best of all the blanket is different on both sides, making it double sided, squishy and visually very lovely indeed.

I'm certain this pattern would be suitable for beginners to have a go at. It does need a little concentration in the beginning to make sure you are starting and ending each row correctly, but it very quickly becomes memorizable (is this even a word?!).

I've written a full step-by-step photo tutorial to walk you through the pattern and give you as much guidance as I possibly can. I've named it the Seashell Stripe, and you can find it in the usual place over in my left hand sidebar, or click on the following link to go right there >> 

SEASHELL PATTERN

As with all my blanket patterns, I would strongly advise you to work up a small tension sample before you launch straight into the blanket - this helps you to become familiar with the pattern (in particular the way the different rows start and end), but also to determine your own personal hooky tension and which hook sizes to go for. This Seashell pattern produces a slightly tighter crochet fabric than usual, so if you are used to working with Stylecraft Special DK, my general advice would be to use a bigger hook size (a half-millimetre) than you would normally use. The Dune blanket is similar to the Moorland and Woodland in this respect. All this is explained in the tutorial.

I've also given options for different blanket sizes, from a baby blanket to a King Size blanket. The yarn pack is enough to make a standard 120 x 180 cm single bed blanket, you will need two yarn packs for a double or king size.

DUNE YARN PACK

So............................................................

Shall we have a look at the blanket now? Would you like to see some more of it?

I love love love starting out on a blanket journey - yes, I'm one of those weirdos who even loves making that very first awkward, wiggly dc row into the foundation chain!! Love it! Having said that, it's wonderful once the stripes get under way and the blanket slowly begins to show itself. I used my yarn pegs and little snips of yarn taped to paper to work out the colour order of the stripes. This is the way I prefer to work - it's hands on and old school and suits me down to the ground.

There are 100 stripes in the Dune blanket, and I've ordered them in what I like to call a "planned random" way. This method gives a lovely energy to the blanket I think, and is definitely my preferred way of playing with colour. I know from the Sweet Pea blanket that many of you prefer to order your stripes using a colourwash, so we'll talk about the idea of a Dune Colourwash towards the end of the post.

I began crocheting the Dune blanket hot on the heels of finishing the Sweet Pea CAL, so these stripes have grown in super-quick time. Started on 12th March and finished on 9th April - that's just four weeks from start to finish. Its a good job I fell head over heels in love with the Seashell stripe pattern isn't it??!! I crocheted at every opportunity - at the café, at friends houses, on the train, and even on an aeroplane (and that's a whole other story for another day!)

But mostly I cosied up and crocheted these pretty rows in the comfort of home. I snuggled on the sofa....

.....in bed....

....and beside the fire.

Shell after shell after shell after shell. The addiction was real.

I finished working my one hundred stripes in record time, and can honestly say that I loved every second of this blanket journey. These soft coastal colours have such happy vibes, and every stitch holds fond memories of happy, breezy, fun-filled times.

For once, I managed to decide on my edging pretty quickly and I'm really, really happy with how it turned out.

I chose four colours and created a version of my Spot-On Edging - this is an easy border to crochet and very enjoyable.

I think the colours I chose work really well - I deliberately placed the Pink between two blue shades to create the "spots" of colour, reminding me of the tiny pink Baltic Tellin shells that I collected from the beach at St Annes.

I've enjoyed the pleasure of the Dune blanket on my bed this past week as the nights have been f-f-f-f-freezing.

I've made my blanket the usual single bed size (120 x 180 cm) so it's not really a good fit for a double bed, but I still love to drape it across my duvet so that I can admire it every time I walk into the bedroom.

It was while I was tidying up my bedside table for photographic purposes that I was reminded of one of my all time favourite books.......

......The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher. I've read this delightful book many, many times over the years (did you know it's over 30 years old now, written in 1987?) and adore it's simple charm and coastal setting. I bought my copy in a second hand book shop in Robin Hoods Bay many years ago, but I was really happy to find that it's still in print and you can find it online {Amazon UK : Amazon US}. I can highly recommend it as a lovely, lighthearted read, especially if like me you have a craving to be beside the sea.

I only got round to spreading my blanket out for photography purposes at the weekend, and the light wasn't especially great to be honest. But I thought you'd appreciate being able to see all one hundred stripes.............

..............ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I adore the texture of the seashell stitch, it is just so blinkin' pretty!

Scrumptious even!

And already very much at home here in the Attic. I'm sat at my drafty desk under the window right now and have the blanket wrapped around me, it feels warm and snug and cosy. I love it so much.

On Friday morning last week, we woke up to the most glorious blue skies, and there was only one place that I wanted to be. So after dropping Little B at school, J and I set off to drive west..............

.......yes, my Dune blanket went on a jolly to St Annes!!!!! I can't tell you how happy I was to stride out into the sand dunes with my blanket tucked under my arm, to conduct my own little personal photo shoot.

It was a beautiful clear day, but don't be fooled by those blue skies as it was blowing a hoolie and really, really cold.

Still, despite the very low temperatures, the sun was shining and my blanket looked amazing with a beachy backdrop.

↑↑↑ oh boy, this photo really makes me laugh!! There is a moody, grumbling husbundo hiding behind that blanket, he really didn't enjoy being my photographic assistant I can tell you! He was cold, his arms ached, he was hungry, it was too windy, no he couldn't hold it any longer......hahaha!!!! We took some terrible photos actually, there is definitely a knack to photographing things on location, especially in windy conditions with strong sunlight and harsh shadows and all that.....

.....I'm certain we didn't do a very good job, but well, the resulting photos are homespun and honest and real, which is what my blog is all about.

I do quite like the above windy action shot, using a wooden post and a piece of driftwood jammed into the sand - this was the last picture before we gave up and trudged off in search of food and warmth. 

I did come home with a really beautiful cockle shell in my pocket though!

I'm wondering what you think of these colours and whether you find them calling to you and whispering all sorts of breezy, seaside things to you? Yarn colours talk to me all the time, is that odd do you think? 

The above bag of yarn is what remains after my blanket was finished - I used approximately 80g of each colour.. There is plenty left to make shell bunting....or maybe a Dune cushion? 

I mentioned earlier about the idea of using the Dune colours to create a colourwash version of the blanket. I made the above sampler to test out the pattern, and deliberately arranged the colours so that they could be crocheted in a subtle wash of colour if you prefer the look of this to a random order.

You could repeat the above order (the Cloud Blue and Storm stripes flow really well together), or you could create something similar to the Sweet Pea colourwash that I put together for my last CAL blanket. I'm sorry I haven't had time to write out an exact blueprint for a colourwash blanket, but if you'd like me to do this, please leave a comment and I'll see what I can do to make it happen ** PLEASE SEE EDIT BELOW**

My own random stripe order is listed over on the Seashell pattern page, and also as part of the printed pattern that is included when you buy a yarn pack from my shop at Wool Woolwarehouse.

And finally, after all the wordy words and excessive number of photos, I just want to say THANK YOU.

Thank you for your encouragement, your friendship and for always keeping me company as I indulge in my blanket and colour addiction. I appreciate you so much, I hope you know that. Thank you!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Here are some links you might need :

♥ DUNE YARN PACK (including printed pattern)

♥ DUNE BLANKET : INTRODUCTION

♥ SEASHELL PATTERN

♥ DUNE BLANKET : EDGING TUTORIAL

**EDIT :: There is now a colourwash colour order for the Dune blanket if you would like to try it. I wrote a blog post which includes a colour chart for you to download - click on the link below >>

♥ DUNE BLANKET COLOURWASH

x

 

Comments

[Claudia Ferriday]

Hi Lucy

Nearly there with this wonderful project, but I need some help!

What's the colour sequence for border for the colour-wash version of the Dune blanket?

Thanks!

[Cheryl Jones]

Hi can someone help me with dune blanket as row 2 says it ends with a dc but i keep redoing and it never ends with dc .... thankyou

[Zoe]

I just wanted to tell you Thank you for the recommendation of The Shell Seekers. I started listening to it as an audiobook last week, and now I'm waiting for a used paperback copy to arrive that I bought (hopefully the same charming cover that you have) and I'm really enjoying it a lot. Great book for this spring/summer. :)

[Marianne Christensen]

Beautiful! Just ordered my kit. Will this one be a CAL. Still working on my Sweet Pea, but I love the pictorials and clear instructions, Lucy. Another great project to look forward to doing. :)

[Sherin]

Hi Lucy, I have just finished my 1st CAL, the Sweet Pea blanket and I LOVE it, I was a bit slow as some days were 40 deg in Sydney, Aus, in our summer! Thanks soooo much for sharing your amazing talents 🙂 I think my next blanket will be the Neat Ripple in the Sunny yarn pack, I love the brights so the browns of the Dune blanket aren’t calling me but I do love the sea shell pattern of the Dune ....ohhhh dear what to do?! 🙂🙂 xxx

[Chrissie Hardman]

You’ve done it again, Lucy, I used your original Dune colours to make Hydrangea and it turned out beautifully. I’m sure I shall be doing the she’ll stitch pattern with the new pack, though i’m In the middle of an ad hoc c2c in white with a diagonal slash of Hayfield Spirit chunky (408) which is turning into a real beauty, and I have a Coast pack waiting...oh, who am I kidding? I’ll order the pack anyway! I like to “sit” with the yarn for a while before I start. Hugging it, playing with it. Anticipation is part of the joy, isn’t it? Thank you, and have a great trip to France. Chrissie x

[Kat]

Hi,

This one will be for me. YAY! Could you please a color wash color list? BTW, please relay to Wool Warehouse I love their yarns, colors, and quick delivery. I have ordered a ton of yarn for my collection over the years. I am in the Chicago area in the US, and get yarn faster from them than if I order stateside.

[kate]

Lovely. Can't wait to see what inspiration you come back from France with! A market blankey? Have a great trip! x

[Sue]

Hi Lucy
I love this blanket but would love to see it in a colourwash if possible?

[Sue]

I grew up in St Annes, my Mum still lives there so I still visit but I see it through different eyes when I read your blog. I see the St Annes I knew all those years ago rather than the one I don't want to move back to now.
The blanket is so "St Annes dunes" you've captured them perfectly. I am even tempted to learn to crochet now to keep those happy memories alive.

[Nell]

Lucy, i would love to make a colour wash version of the Dune Blanket if you can post the sequence i would be very grateful. As always, a beautiful blanket. I ordered the kit!

[Di Ross]

Beautiful 😍

[Helena]

Simply lovely....

[Angela-Southern USA]

It's fantastic!!! Definitely has a beachy vibe. Have a wonderful Easter weekend! xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[Kathryn Grimshaw]

Hi Lucy, I love all your posts as I live in a neighbouring village over the border in Lancs and I know all the places you talk about on your walks in Skipton. I am transported to Skipton Woods and the park and the canal, when you speak about them I love Skipton
Your latest creation is stunning and has convinced me that I must make it for my son and his partner who live in USA. They both love the sea and I hope that they will fall in love with your blanket colours just as I have. I’m very interested in doing the colourwash version and my pack arrived today, just one day after ordering! What a fabulous service !
thanks for all you do. I hope to bump into you one day! Xx

[Ann]

Wonderful Wool Warehouse - ordered the Dune pack on Wednesday morning, it arrived in this mornings post (Thursday). Couldn’t wait to get started on this lovely 😊 blanket. Thank you Lucy - it’s gorgeous. I love the colours, makes me want to go to the beach, to collect shells 🐚.

[Michelle Kupreisis]

Hello from Chicago Illinois. What a wonderful blanket love the colors. Have a wonderful Easter holiday.

[Alison Richardson]

Greetings from South Africa. Your blanket is sooooo gorgeous! Love your blog and stories. Much love from Africa

[Rosa]

Your new blanket is stunning! The colour palette makes it a masterpiece despite the pattern is so simple.
Many compliments Lucy and thank you for the wonderful photos of your country. I've been in the Uk twice and it's always in my heart. I'd love to come again.
Hugs,
Rosa

[Sue S]

Mine is ordered! Hoping it will arrive for me to binge on at the weekend :D
Lucy, it would be wonderful if you could create a blueprint for a Colourwash blanket, as that was my preferred version of the Sweet Pea too...
Thank you so much for all your inspiration and creativity x

[Linda from Boston]

Ordered my yarn pack! Can’t wait to start this.

[Charlotte Skelton]

What wonderful colours! Yarn pack arrived in one day. How could I turn each shell into a square, so I could use the leftover yarn to make a shell granny square blanket? So looking forward to making this! Love from the Jurassic Coast. Charlotte

[Teresa Kasner]

Hi Lucy! I ordered my yarn pack and am looking forward to receiving it! I will be doing the color wash design. I'm in love with these sweet colors! Thank you so much for putting this together for all of us. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

❀.•❤•.✿.•❤ Happy Easter! ❀.•❤•.✿.•❤

[Mimi]

The colors-my favorite!! I just ordered the yarn and looking forward to making this gorgeous blanket.Thankyou!

[Elise]

I had just started your Harmony Blanket and ordered my yarn right before you announced this gorgeous Dune Blanket! This may have to be my next project! The colors are just so beautiful and I think that's my favorite border ever! Also your grumpy husband gave me a good chuckle! Mine would have been the same way! Thank you again for all you do and sharing your talent with us all!