Meadow Blanket :: Introduction

Good morning! If you're here looking for the new Meadow yarn pack, click on the following link to go straight there >>

❧🏵️ MEADOW YARN PACK ❧🏵️

If you'd like to read on, I'm sharing more of the inspiration behind the Meadow blanket.....

I always embark on a very curious and creative journey when I design colour palettes for blankets, as I am never quite sure where the inspiration will come from or how it will manifest itself inside my Creative Mind. Sometimes I mull over possible themes for a very long time (years) before it feels right for them to come to fruition, and sometimes the ideas just seem to ping in at a moments notice. The Meadow blanket was definitely a PiNG moment!! The idea for the colour palette landed inside my mind with such force one sunny morning that I immediately knew I would be powerless to resist it's charms.

Those of you who've been reading my blog for a while will be familiar with the small meadow I visit which is just a five minute stroll from home. I mostly feel the pull there in late May when the buttercups are in full flower, and over the years I've often shared photographs of the haze of golden flowers. It's a such a stunning sight and one of the many reasons that May is my absolute favourite month of the year.

This year during May and June, I often felt drawn to the meadow when I was feeling in need of some breathing space. We were still in quite a severe lockdown back then with pretty much everything shut so that we were only venturing out for our daily walks. 

I strolled around the meadow almost every day throughout June, most often on my own when I craved solitude. It became my sanctuary, a haven of tranquillity where I could calm down my racing thoughts and find some peace for my emotions to gently settle.

As June progressed I began to notice more and more wild flowers hiding in the tangle of tall summer grass. The buttercups were still there, but their vibrant golden yellow was joined by a beautiful palette of summer shades. Purple and white clovers, vetches and trefoils, creeping thistles and creamy meadowsweet, wild sorrel and hogweed.

I found myself absolutely transfixed by the beauty of these common wild flowers....

...hogweed...

...clover...

...buttercup.

I spent long moments slowly wandering the pathway around the edge of the meadow searching for flowers and taking in the colours. It was a beautiful time - long slow days with many hours to spend day dreaming and creating inside my mind.

I still walked the meadow through the days of July as it continued to deliver a welcome period of quiet calm to my days. By this time, most of the flowers had gone and the tall summer grasses had well and truly taken over. There was a delicious purple haze over the meadow - I don't know what this particular grass is called but it's very delicate and its smoky purple hue looked amazing.

OH>> I just had a little search online and found  this, aren't we so so fortunate to have so much information at our fingertips? So this grass ↑↑↑ is "Yorkshire Fog grass" - wow, I am LOVING that!! 

Into August and pretty much all the wild flowers had gone, with the exception of the hogweed....

....towering above even the tallest grasses. I learnt the hard way that hogweed should not be picked as it really irritates the skin. In fact, it's not the thing to pick any flowers from the meadow as the area is protected and I have a lot of respect for these kind of rules.

I spent a lot of time walking throughout the summer months, often covering many miles across fields and around quiet narrow lanes around my town and neighbouring villages. I saw so many wild flowers growing in abundance, along verges and rough grass around fields and roads, and I noted that most of them were the same species that were growing in the meadow. So one stormy summers evening, I went off on a mission to gather in some stems for my photographs, taking care to pick only one or two from each spot. I walked just under five miles in my quest to gather in all the shades that I needed...

....ahhhhhh, such a wonderful spread of summer colour! I decided to include some blues in this colour palette to represent the summer sky, and I'm really happy with the overall feel of it. Actually "really happy" doesn't even come close to describing my feelings here - this delicate and pretty colour palette is absolutely full of summer light and warmth and I couldn't love it more. It has a healing quality which instantly gives me a calm feeling and transports me back to my quiet, solo walks around that glorious field of living colour. I am very much hoping that the Meadow blanket will be blessed with the same calm, healing vibe.

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

Starting from the top and working clockwise ::

🏵️ Wisteria 🏵️ Lavender 🏵️ Cloud Blue 🏵️ Duck Egg 🏵️ Sage 🏵️

🏵️ Lincoln 🏵️ Meadow 🏵️ Pistachio 🏵️ Dandelion 🏵️ Buttermilk 🏵️

🏵️ Parchment 🏵️ Mushroom 🏵️ Pale Rose 🏵️ Raspberry 🏵️ Grape 🏵️

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

❧🏵️ MEADOW YARN PACK ❧🏵️

It's hard to put into words how much I adore these colours - they are extremely calming (without being dull) and bring a gentle warmth which reminds me so much of my summer meadow walks. They sing to me of sunshine and a light breeze, of soft footsteps around quiet pathways, of tall waving grasses, distant hills and calming views. And of course the floral delights are represented in all those glorious hues - the pinks, purples and golden yellows of the wild meadow flowers. 

Beautiful, all of it.

The wild flowers that I gathered from the roadside lasted a few days indoors - I plopped them into recycled glass jars and really enjoyed observing their gentle beauty up close.

It was fun to play with the colours, matching flowers to yarn and marvelling at how the "Dandelion" shade was the absolute perfect match for buttercups. It couldn't be a more perfect colour for the Meadow blanket.

I have to confess it was a sneezy affair having wild flowers and grasses on my table - atchooooo! So much pollen!

But in the days that I had wild flowers in my table I absolutely made the most of it. I played endlessly with my yarn pegs, and sampled a whole stack of possibilities for a stripe pattern that would do these colours justice.

After a lot of false starts, I eventually settled on something simple but rather perfect. This is a variation of a "crossed treble" where the stitches are worked in pairs so that they cross over each other. It immediately reminded me of the tangled criss-cross of grasses and flowers as they grow in such abundance in the meadow.

These neat rows of little crosses create a beautiful pattern - it's a weeny bit lacy and a weeny bit textured but all very subtle I'd say. And oh, it makes for some delicious, easy-breezy crochet! Perfect for beginners (if you can crochet a UK treble, then you can create this stitch I promise) - there is just enough concentration needed to keep you on your toes, but the ease of these rows makes it extremely pleasurable.

When I was first working on the design ideas for the Meadow blanket, I knew straight away that it would be perfectly suited to creating a "colour story". If you've followed along with my CALs before, you are probably familiar with the Moorland and Woodland blankets? Both of these blankets were designed as a colour story, which means that the stripes are ordered in such a way that the colours tell a story of a particular landscape view.

From a design point of view, this represents a fairly major challenge - it's not nearly as easy as it looks to create this kind of effect whilst keeping a track of yarn quantities. But you know me, I do really love a colour challenge and I think "story blankets" are my absolute favourites to design.

In the above photo, you can see on the left that I've created a graphic representation of the Meadow Story. This should hopefully give you an idea of how the ninety stripes will look once they all come together to create the full length blanket. My aim is to use the colours to recreate the tranquil feeling of strolling through a quiet meadow surrounded by flowers, with a beautiful distant view of rolling hills and summer sky.

As well as the Meadow colour story, there will also be a second option to create a "mixed stripe" Meadow blanket where all fifteen meadow colours are dispersed evenly throughout the whole blanket. Over the past few years I've enjoyed giving more than one option for my CAL blankets and it's always wonderful to see the excitement as everyone makes their decision as to which version they prefer. I'll be sharing some sneak peeks of the two versions of the Meadow blanket a little bit closer to the start of the CAL.

Needless to say, I'm really, really excited for this blanket journey to begin and for us to enjoy a meaner in the meadow together. Just a reminder that there is no need to sign up for this CAL - it's all very relaxed here in the Attic so all you need to do is gather your yarn together and join in when the pattern is released in the New Year.

I'll be writing more about the CAL a little closer to the time (just over six weeks until the CAL starts), but here is a quick round-up of information for you :

♥ The Attic24 MEADOW CAL will will run for 8 weeks in total, beginning on Friday 8th January - that'll be the day when the pattern will be published here on my blog and I'll give you all the information you need to get started. I'll then give weekly updates every Friday throughout January and February 2021 so that we can make the most of weekend hooky time.

♥ There will be a full picture tutorial here on my blog for the new Meadow stripe pattern. Each week I'll share the colour stripe order for the two different versions of the Meadow blanket I'm making (Colour Story and Mixed Stripe)

♥ The MEADOW YARN PACK contains 15 x 100g balls of Stylecraft Special DK and is enough to make one blanket/throw. There is no printed pattern included in this pack, all pattern info will be here on my blog, with updates every Friday throughout January and February 2021. 

♥ The Meadow blanket will measure approx. 120cm x 175cm. You will need two packs if you wish to make a larger/double bed size blanket. I'll give starting chain/pattern guidance for those of you wishing to make larger (or smaller) blankets.

I'm extremely grateful to my friends at Stylecraft Yarns and Wool Warehouse for all the hard work they've done to make sure that this gorgeous collection of yarn is here for you. Wool Warehouse are continuing to work under very tricky conditions, keeping their fabulous staff safe with social distancing measures and an increased work load. They will do their best to get yarn out to you as quickly as they can, and to ship overseas at the present time, but as postal and delivery services are snowed under right now, please expect that there maybe some slight delays. The CAL begins in just over 6 weeks, so hopefully enough time for you to gather your yarn together.

As always thank you so so much for your friendship and enthusiasm as I embark on another blanket journey, it means the world to me that I get to have your company, especially in the depths of winter when life can feel like an uphill struggle. Thank you, thank you xx

❧🏵️ MEADOW YARN PACK ❧🏵️

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ps my lovely planner friend Rachel of Elliebeth Designs has designed some truly beautiful planner stickers to go along with the Meadow CAL which will be available as part of her WNW (what's new Wednesday) tomorrow. I have a discount code for you, so I'll be sure to post more info for you in the next day or so. xxxx

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Katherine, NZ]

Once again, what gorgeous colours! 😍

[Teresa Kasner]

I adore the colors you selected for this CAL and promptly clicked on the link to WW and ordered a luscious package of prettiness! Thank you, Lucy!! I will enjoy working on this during the darkest days of the winter.. each stitch will be like a walk in your summer meadow. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

[Lucy M. in Oklahoma]

I've made a few of your patterns and followed the Sweet Pea posts avidly, wishing I had the time to join in. This time, I'm doing it!!! Just ordered the yarn, and I'm so excited for the CAL! I will be counting the days until January 8! Thank you for sharing your beautiful ideas with us all!

[Simon]

I really like the colours for the this blanket - wildflowers are such a good source of inspiration! But I am on the verge of giving up trebles. I am hardly ever happy with them and usually end up unpicking as many as I "do" in any given session. After the two 'treble' wips are finished, I may not bother with them ever again!

Good luck with the cal:)

[Jan Heywood]

Gorgeous choice of colours... can’t wait 😊

[Susan]

I just picked up my yarn pack! It will be just the thing to ease me into the New Year here in Ohio (US). The colors are LOVELY.

[Deb]

I really, really need to improve my crocheting skills but perhaps I could manage a striped winter scarf to beautify a dreary winter. The colors are scrumptious!
Another lovely post.
Deb, Wisconsin

[Kathie Stedman]

hello Lucy....I've made many of your lovely blanket patterns with delight...I am able to weave in the row ends with no difficulty but I was wondering if you have some suggestions on weaving in the border threads?
Thanks for sharing your wonderful inspiring patterns.

[Victoria Margerison]

For dogs read frogs!!

[Victoria Margerison]

Meadows make your heart sing don't they? Beautiful colours Lucy.I am making a small meadow in the back garden here in Norfolk. It was it's first year this year so a way to go before we get flowers. We did have Yorkshire Fog which I love, a beautiful purple haze rippling in the breeze. The wildlife pond is coming on a treat though it filled me with dismay when we made it- think a hole lined with black stuff! Anyway the plants and grasses around it and in it grew, dragonflies and damsel flies visited and laid eggs, water boatmen appeared and water beetles, dogs, toads and a newt. I love it now.

[Margaret L.]

I walked past your meadow yesterday in the low light and thought of it in midsummer. You’ve really captured the feel of it. I love the little crocheted flowers you’ve made into a heart -so pretty and would look lovely on a heart shaped wire ..... I also love the texture of the stitch you’ve used for this blanket. So clever to always find the perfect crochet stitch to complement the colours and the feel of the inspiration you chose.

[Tracy Bache]

I'm soooooo excited I could burst!!I love the colours. How you put colours together always amazes me. Thank you Lucy so much and beautiful pictures. The pictures of the meadow really have given me a sense of calm after a particular hard day at work today.💖

[Pat Lilly]

I knew as soon as I saw the colour palette that I wanted to do this. It will match my bedroom perfectly so I’ve ordered two packs with a view to making a double or even a king-size blanket. It will be my first CAL ( but my second ‘Lucy’ blanket) and I am so looking forward to it. The pinks, yellows and purples also remind me of primroses which are my favourite winter flowers and your adorable crochet flowers emphasise this in my mind. I think I’ll be crocheting some of those, too! I really appreciate hearing about your inspiration and thought processes for this blanket

[Linda from Boston]

Yarn pack ordered❣️ Beautiful colors and pattern. Can’t wait.

[Miss Daisy]

Absolutely LOVE your color choices !!! Amazing talent.

[CJ]

Meadows are absolutely magical places aren't they. So diverse when you look closely. And such gorgeous colours. Love the blanket, and the picture of the yarn colours and their flower/grass equivalents is divine. CJ xx

[Jane]

Another stunning creation I can't wait to get started on! I'm currently still working on Aria. I've seen all the stunning finishes on 'Hooked on Attic24' and i just wish i had more time to crochet. I should definitely have Aria finished by the New Year. Much love x

[Susan]

Think I'll be doing this one too, as I love those colours & definitely need another easy crochet project for evening relaxation. Thanks Lucy, really enjoyed this post & seeing photos of the Dales in all their floral beauty. Take care, stay safe & hugs from down under. PS: Will order the pack this week & hope it arrives in time.

[Laura]

I’ve just caught up on your recent few posts (I’m still not used to this flurry of posts!). Thank you for your openness and honesty, it is like having a coffee with a friend x I’m in the market for a new project, the meadow might just be perfect xx

[Amanda Smith]

Wonderful introduction to the Meadow Blanket and how you were inspired to create it. Definitely nature has the very best colours and as I always say look at nature to pair colours it rarely disappoints! Gorgeous photos of your meadow! Keep well Amanda x

[Janette]

Lucy, I’ve ordered 😍. So excited. Luv, luv, luv your patterns. I’ve made 4 sweet peas & 2 dahlias plus I have the yarn for dune & moorland. I’ve been checking your site & wool warehouse all day - I’m in Australia so it’s the end of Tuesday here.

[Abby]

Such beautiful meadow colours and even better for real in your local countryside. Yes I'll be giving it a go.

[Heather Bentley]

Morning I just bought my pack as I love your New Year CALs. Thank you so much for your lovely description of how you created this journey we shall embark on in January when we all feel blurgh!!! I have thoroughly enjoyed today’s blog as I’ve been ‘under the weather’ and this has certainly lifted my spirits especially loving Spring as much as I do! Thank You so much and I can’t wait for my delivery and the start. Thame care and much love xxx

[Kristine Schipp]

YAY!!! ORDERED!! Waiting! BEAUTY IN A BLANKET, as always, from a beauty inside & out xxxx thanks @Lucy Attic24
Kristine in Sydney (see our WhatsApp!)