This is a story about a blanket that is all heart. It is so full of feels that it's hard to know how to begin to tell you the story, but I shall do my very best. I chose these colours waaaaaaaaay back in the depths of winter last year, towards the very tail end of 2019, yes, so long ago now. At the time I was planning this blanket for Spring 2020, thinking that it would be a beautiful follow up project after the Dahlia CAL.
What is interesting about this colour palette is that for the first time in a long while there was no solid, tangible inspiration for it. No pretty flowers, no rolling hills, no falling leaves, no crashing waves. It was simply a collection of colours that made me feel HAPPY. Actually, no, that's not true. Happy isn't quite the right word - it's more like UTTER JOY. The kind of joy that wells up from your toes, wiggles in your belly, dances across your heart and spins right through your mind. Do you know that feeling? It's something I am very fortunate enough to experience quite often in my life, a soul-deep emotional response to something very beautiful. Maybe it's the colour of the sky, or the feeling of blissful warm sun on my face after a cold spell. I wanted to capture something that reminded me of sunshine and warmth, the feeling of finally being outdoors on a warm, bright day after so many weeks and months of cool grey. That first inhale of fresh grass and country air, of sun dappled woodland, or of salty sea spray.
I know this probably sounds very fanciful and a bit "arty-farty" (J's words, I don't take it personally I promise), but there you have it. Maybe you look at this colour palette and see a rainbow, or just inexplicably feel happy when you look at them without needing to relate it to anything in particular.
I happen to love love love love love love LOVE these colours together. There is heat and there is cool, excitement and balance. It pops and it stills, it's dynamic yet calm too. It sings such a beautiful song to me! Incidentally, talking of songs, the word Aria is a musical term which refers to a melody, and I kind of love that it has a musical link to my Harmony blanket. Aria is also the Italian word for"air" - every time I look at this colour palette it makes me feel like I am breathing in lungfuls of fresh, sunshine-filled air, which naturally contributes to the Joyful factor for me. Very much so.
As is usual for my blankets, I've chosen 15 shades of Stylecraft Special DK for my Aria blanket.
This is enough to make a blanket measuring approximately 150cm square (or 120cm x 180cm single bed size if you wish to create a striped blanket from the Aria yarn pack)
Colours from left to right...
♥ Boysenberry ♥ Pomegranate ♥ Tomato ♥ Gold ♥ Pistachio ♥
♥ Lime ♥ Apple ♥ Spearmint ♥ Sage ♥ Cornish Blue ♥
♥ Bluebell ♥ Cloud Blue ♥ Wisteria ♥ Violet ♥ Proper Purple ♥
You can find the Aria yarn pack in my shop at Wool Warehouse, click on the link below...
* the yarn pack contains a 12 page full colour A4 printed pattern
Again, in an unusual twist for me, I started making this blanket without any concrete idea of what I was actually doing. I usually have a very firm design in mind when I start a blanket journey, but not so with Aria. It simply didn't want to be firmed up at all, it was fluid and changeable and so I decided to go with the flow and allow the design to unfold by itself. I knew how the actual pattern was going to work as I'd already designed this square back last year in celebration of granny Square Day 2019 (you see it on Instagram HERE).
So I simply sat down and began to crochet. I decided on a square 12 x 12 format and set about making 144 little round-1 circles. That's them in the photo above, don't they look lush all together like that?
To give you an idea of timing - I began crocheting the Aria blanket in early March, so a time before "Lockdown" when we had absolutely no idea whatsoever about a global pandemic sweeping in and changing our lives so dramatically. No. Idea. I was happily going about my usual business, crocheting these bright, uplifting colours and dreaming about summer living.
Designing a blanket on the fly is not for the faint hearted. It's a really pretty hard way to go about things to be honest! I tried to make the best colour choices without really understanding what this blanket was trying to do. I just went with gut instinct, tried not to worry too much or overthink my decisions and hoped that all would be well.
Here we are at the end of March now, and the start of full pandemic lockdown life. Endless hours and days at home, with nothing to do but try and stay calm and immerse myself in the therapeutic pleasures of colour and creativity.
With the second colour added, I slowly began to get a feel for what was happening, and what Aria was trying to say to me. I thought at first that the palette was going to be loosely arranged in rows, a falling waterfall of colour if you like. But I took my time, playing around with the squares over many days until finally Aria began to sing to me. It really didn't want to be in regimented lines at all, it wanted to pulse and radiate out from the centre! I could see it clearly now, feel how the design was forming itself almost without my help. It was honestly like magic, I can't find the words to describe the feeling to you. It was pretty amazing.
So I continued to trust my instinct and began working from the centre of the blanket outwards - this is a first for me, and not the way I usually do things, but it was so much fun! I made a 4 x 4 central square, concentrating on the hot side of the colour palette. I spent a LOT of time crawling about on the floor arranging and rearranging the squares and yarn balls to try and get a handle on how to work it out. I simply couldn't come up with anything mathematical or logical so just had to wing it, making every single colour decision on pure instinct as I went along. Hundreds of decisions - imagine that?! It was thrilling and exhausting, a real labour of love.
24th April now, a whole month after lockdown began, and the weather in the UK was incredible. Weeks of heat and sunshine, the hottest Spring I can remember in many years. I did some of my hooking outside, but truthfully it was a weeny bit too hot to sit for long.
So I came back inside, working at the dining table as best as I could. I arranged my squares on trays so that I could easily clear away every time we needed to sit down to eat. It was a neat way to work actually as those trays became working colour palettes and allowed me to easily see what colours I had to play with.
Can you see in the photo above, how the colour design is beginning to show? See how the heat sits in the centre and there is a gentle pulse as the reds and oranges give way to gold and greens?
The next phase was to introduce the cooler colours, bringing in the softer green tones and easing in some blues.
I was having a huge amount of creative fun by this point as I began to feel more confident and sure of myself. There was still a massive element of chance (flying by the seat of my pants, really) but by taking my time and engaging my creative brain to the max, I relished the challenge of it.
We were easing into the very end of April now, and the weather took a turn for the worse. We pulled our jumpers back on, hunkered down and lit the fire, and it was pretty cosy here in the Attic. Of course I would much rather have the sun and heat, but fireside hooky time is pretty special.
I alternated my time between the dining table and the living room floor, moving my trays and yarn supplies to and fro when I needed to and making the best of working from home. I needed to use the floor when I had lots of colour decisions to make as it allowed me to gain a better perspective. I could lay the blanket out and stand above it, making sure everything was balancing and singing in harmony.
I preferred to crochet sat at the table and spent many hours with my hook as I worked and joined the last big round of squares. Using the join-as-you-go technique is wonderful, but it does mean that from a design point of view, you need to have a strong creative vision. You need to be able to imagine what those squares will look like with their final colours added, and it's not always an easy things to do. But honestly, I'm super-proud of what I managed to achieve by winging it!!!! Hahaha!!!!
I mean, just look at it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Isn't it a delight???!!!!!
One hundred and forty four squares completed and joined and I was SO HAPPY.
We are jaunting through early May now, my absolute favourite time of year by far. The colours of the blanket were making me so happy, and I was spending as much time as possible outside. Remember we were still in Lockdown, and only allowed our one walk a day, but I was absolutely breathing in every second of fresh air and enjoying it to the full.
I'm working on the border now, long rounds of treble crochet, a soothing rhythm to get lost in.
I worked 9 plain rounds of border, making it very bright and colourful, and finished with a little bit of a decorative edging......
....it turned out just how I had imagined it. It's always a great moment when a blanket is finished and you can give it a little bit of Spa treatment. I washed the blanket in the washing machine on a normal 40 degree wash - blankets made in Stylecraft Special come out of the machine just damp and not sopping wet as they can withstand a fairly decent spin. I then spread the blanket out directly on the carpeted Attic floor, smoothing and gently stretching it into shape.
It didn't need too many pins, just a line of them around the outer edge where the border joined onto the squares. I left it for a full 24 hours to make sure it was thoroughly dry before unpinning it and dancing a happy jig.....
....oh, I was SO so pleased with it! Such a beautiful, joyful thing!
On a sunny morning in early June I took Aria to the meadow to try and take some photos. It was pretty early in the morning and not many folk about, but still I felt self conscious about doing the whole photo shoot thing. The buttercups were in full flower and I had an idea that the blanket would look stunning with a natural floral background.
I took a whole load of terrible photos to be honest with you, there are very few that I would want to share with you. And yet I still think that despite the really poor photography skills, the blanket looks delightful.
After the meadow morning, I began to use the Aria blanket without really worrying about photographing it. I was just so in love with it that I took it everywhere with me. The above photo was taken one evening in late June, just around the time of the Summer Solstice. Oh, those long, light filled summer days make me soooooo happy! It was around 9pm in the above photo and I'd spent a few hours at the park crocheting and day dreaming. It was absolutely blissful and such a wonderful summer memory for me to hold onto.
In August, Aria came with me when we went down to Dorset for a few days.
It spent many happy hours on the beach, looking fabulous in all it's radiating colourful glory. I wonder what you make of the design, do you like the way the colours play out? Are you surprised at how well it works, considering you now know the rather haphazard story behind it?!
↑↑↑ This has to be one of my all time favourite blanket photos, I love it so, so much. It was a quick snap of Little Lady playing with the blanket for me after we'd walked along the clifftops to a quiet stretch of beach to picnic and swim. The clouds had rolled in so the sun has dimmed a little but it was still hot with a light breeze blowing. Such a lot of great memories already held in this blanket of mine, and isn't that one of the very best things about making blankets? They are the most excellent keepers of memories.
Now I absolutely loved making and joining these squares and had become more than a little obsessed about this colour palette. But I do know after many years of sharing my blankets with you that crocheting squares isn't everyone's cup of tea. So I set my mind back into design mode and began working on a stripe sampler. Ah, stripes are so much easier to get to grips with! Out came my trusty yarn pegs and it was a breeze working these delicious colours into a pleasing sequence.
So in the photo above, you can see two stripy possibilities. On the left is what I would call a "modern rainbow" - the Aria colours ordered into a sequence which follows the colour wheel. I think this repeating stripe would make a fantastic blanket and if this tickles your fancy, here is the order for the Aria Rainbow :
- Pomegranate
- Tomato
- Gold
- Lime
- Pistachio
- Apple
- Sage
- Spearmint
- Cloud Blue
- Cornish blue
- Bluebell
- Wisteria
- Violet
- Proper Purple
- Boysenberry
On the right in the photo above you can see my long skinny "Aria mixed stripe" sampler. This contains equal quantities of all 15 colours, designed so that you could use any of my existing stripe patterns to make it.
I am very, very lucky to have a fabulous group of online hooky friends who offered to step in and help me out here. When they got wind of a Striped Aria, they were all for it and volunteered to test it out for me. Would you like to see?
OK, here you go......................
Oh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Isn't that just divine?! This beautiful blanket was crocheted by Darlene, combining the Aria colour pack with the Hydrangea Stripe pattern. I had always wanted to see the Hydrangea stripe worked up in stronger colours and this absolutely did not disappoint.
↑↑↑ This shows Darlene's blanket in full. Following the Hydrangea pattern she crocheted 88 stripes in total.
↑↑↑ Now this stunner was made by Kris, an Aria Interlocking Ripple blanket. What do you think, isn't it a beauty? She created her own stunning colour sequence and followed the Neat Ripple pattern.
↑↑↑ Jane decided to make a colourful version of the Neat Wave (the pattern I used to make the Moorland blanket), and I think it looks incredible. I love the way the wave pattern makes the stripes almost look like they are moving, it's really striking to look at.
↑↑↑ Fran decided to use her Aria colours to make a simple Granny Stripe, using the repetitive, easy rows for some top notch hooky therapy. I know how much she is enjoying the Aria colour palette, they really are "happy colours".
I'd like to say a huge big thank you to my HH friends, you are all amazing and I am so lucky to have you on this journey with me ♥
Now rather than write out a huge long list of the colours for the Aria Mixed Stripe, J has helped me to create a series of worksheets. Depending on which stripe pattern you choose (there are nine of them) each pattern will have a different number of stripes. I hope this makes sense! Just click on the Worksheet links to pop up a PDF which you can download.
♥ Aria Cosy Stitch Worksheet (90 stripes)
♥ Aria Granny Stitch Worksheet (90 stripes)
♥ Aria Hydrangea Stitch Worksheet (88 stripes)
♥ Aria Neat Ripple Stitch Worksheet (84 stripes)
♥ Aria Neat Wave Stitch Worksheet (115 stripes) : as used in the Moorland Blanket
♥ Aria Seashell Stitch Worksheet (100 stripes) : as used in the Dune blanket
♥ Aria Spike Stitch Worksheet (99 stripes) : as used in the Dahlia blanket
♥ Aria Trellis Stitch Worksheet (84 stripes) : as used in the Sweet Pea blanket
♥ Aria Woodland Ripple Stitch (105 stripes)
I hope this additional colour info is helpful - all patterns (including starting chains etc) are in my sidebar in the usual place, I expect you will already be familiar with many of them and will already have a favourite.
So......the Aria Square. As you can see it's a very, very simple take on a five-round granny square, using groups of 2-trebles worked out of the spaces. I wanted something very easy that would work well for beginners, a simple square that would become a great vehicle for a whole load of colour play.
You can find the tutorial in my left hand side bar, or click on the following link >>
There are only three colour changes for each square, so the dreaded darning in of the ends is kept to a minimum. I know so many people fret about The Ends, but it's really pretty simple - every time you finish a round and snip off the yarn, grab your needle and immediately tuck those ends away. Every. Single. Time. It takes mere seconds and then it is done, no fretting, no drama, no dingly dangly bits of yarn getting in your way. Easy peasy, I promise you.
The join-as-you-go method is a little more complicated to explain but I would still say it is suitable for beginners to try. I've made my usual full photo tutorial which explains this method and shows you how to work the Aria squares and join them in methodical horizontal rows. If you can make a slip stitch, then you can definitely do this method. Alternatively, if you really dislike join-as-you-go, you can make up all the squares and crochet them together at the end. I have a tutorial for making a slip-stitch seam join ((here)).
So I think that's pretty much it for the Aria story, thank you so much if you have got this far as I know this has been a long blog post. I suddenly had a lot to say, didn't I?!
I shall leave you with one last photo - me in my happy place down in Dorset, with windswept sea-salty hair and a very happy heart.......
.....Ta-dah!!!!
Thank you as always for sharing in my ta-dah moments and encouraging me on this creative journey. I am so very grateful for you.
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Here are the links all in one place :
♥ ARIA YARN PACK (contains 12 page printed pattern)
♥ ARIA WORKSHEET DOWNLOAD (the colour sequence for the squares)
