Battenberg Blanket Finale

It's been quite a long time since I've done a blanket ta dah moment!

But this blanket and this ta dah, deserves it's moment in my eyes, because this blanket is my true love, possibly my favourite crochet project of all time and maybe even my magnum opus.  At least, it definitely feels like a 'great work' if only judged my the by size and effort and time and love that went into it!

As you may know, I've had this baby on the go for a while now.  It took about a year all in all.  Not a rushed year, a gentle, do some now and then year.  Although, there was some pretty intense stuff at the beginning when I couldn't possibly manage to tear myself away to work on anything else.

I last posted about it here on the blog way back in January, (My Battenberg Blanket and the 'Modular Join) and it's popped up on the podcast now and again too.  But now, finally, the end of this glorious and so enjoyable project has come around and although I started to try and drag it out as long as I could once the finish line was in sight, it is now actually over.  I know it looks like a lot of work, and I guess it is, but I'm really going to miss this project.

I won't go over the how's and the why's of this project coming about, I'll let you read the other post if you want a little more 'back story' but I do want to try and share some pictures of the completed blanket and give you to low-down on some of the facts and figures.  There are lively minds out there who like these things, I know.

I've also made a little 'Battenberg Special' podcast where you can join me to see me wave the blanket around a bit and generally waffle on about it all!  I'll add the link to that at the end of the post too.

Let us begin with some of the nitty gritty...

: :   B L A N K E T   B A S I C S   : :

⇒ Squares ⇐

~ I made a total of 1020 squares.  

~ That's 510 of the colourful squares and another 510 white squares, which I used to join everything together.  They are arranged in a 34 by 30 rectangle.

~ I used 4ply/fingering weight  yarn for all the colourful squares in a massive variety of different yarns, all (or almost all) from indy dyers, some purchased, some from other projects, many from swaps.

~ For the white yarn I used Drops Merino Baby yarn in Off White.  I thought it was a 4ply yarn when I got it but I've subsequently seen it described as sport weight.  Either way, it did the job!

⇒ Yardage ⇐

~ It took a total of 3439 yards of yarn to make the colourful squares, around 787 grams, yikes! 

~ And a total of 4892 yards of the white yarn, around 1278 grams.

About 382 yards/100g of that was for the border.

~That's 25.5 balls of the Drops Merino.  (2 for the border)

~ So that's a whopping 8331 yards for this blanket and it weighs in at 2065 grams!

~ It took less than 2g of yarn to make each of the colourful squares, it averaged at about 1.6g

~ I could generally make about 21 white squares (with join) per ball of Drops yarn.  That's an average of about 2.4g per square.  

⇒ Size ⇐

~ Each of my squares are about 5cm big, maybe a smidge over.   That's using a 3.0mm hook. 

~ The whole blanket is 180 x 156 cm (70 x 62”).

~ I made it to fit my king sized bed, and it drapes over the sides, but not lots.

(That's a UK King, I don't know how that compares to other countries.)

Well that covers all the details, that I can think of anyway, but if there's something else you want to know, just pop a comment down below and I'll answer you there.

Now let's get to the pattern itself and the helpful links that you might like to make use of if you are plotting and planning a Battenberg of your own...


: :   B A T T E N B E R G   P A T T E R N   : :


Battenberg Blanket PDF Pattern
This is the written pattern of the blanket.  It includes a written pattern for the solid granny squares, for the joining method and the border.  It also has some diagrams to show how to join too.

Solid Granny Square Tutorial
This is a photo tutorial showing how I make the Granny squares I use in this blanket.  This is really helpful if you want to use my joining method and links in the the Modular join tutorials linked below.
(Note that I'm only working three rounds in this blanket though.)

Modular Join Tutorial (Right Handed) and Left Handed
This is a video tutorial which explains exactly how I joined by squares using my Modular Join Technique.


... UPDATE ...

Baby Bergs Coaster Pattern
The Baby Berg Coaster pattern that I mention in the podcast and seen in the pictures is now available!



: :   B A T T E N B U R G   P O D C A S T   S P E C I A L   : :

My little 'Battenberg Special' for the podcast channel.  Come join me for a Battenberg celebration!  I'll gabble on about the blanket and try and show you it all on a screen that's too small, how could you not want to see that?




Well that's it from me, I hope you'll like the blanket and maybe fancy making one of your own.

If you do, I'd love to see...

#cherryheartdesigns

#battenbergblanket

S x

♥

#CherryHeart

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