A crocheted blanket is an excellent place to start an exploration of colour. The nature of the stitch construction in crochet ensures that a blanket looks good on both sides, doesn’t lose its shape and requires minimal finishing apart from sewing in the ends – all of which means you can concentrate on colour.
In theory, I am taken by the idea of crochet as a thrift craft, a means of using up leftover yarns or colours which didn’t fit into a more co-ordinated project. I like the mish-mash of colours in vintage crocheted blankets; the way the makers seemed to use whatever they pulled from their workbag, the way they revelled in clashes and contrasts, the way they followed the dictates of the project, not those of genteel good taste. This is free and liberated creativity in which simplicity of form gives huge possibilities for playing with colour.
The idea for this blanket came when I found a charming but somewhat matted, wavy blanket on eBay. I fell for the undulations of colour, the way it made my eyes bob up and down on the waves, and the use of a vast number of colours which, although they didn’t all ‘go’ next to each other, somehow worked in the overall scheme.
After finding a simple, softly rippling pattern in double crochet in 200 Ripple Stitch Patterns by Jan Eaton, I flew in the face of all concepts of thrift crochet and bought a pile of 100% wool DK yarns. I didn’t want a strict, repeating pattern and nor did I want the blanket to be so random that it lacked cohesion. So every two or three rows I would line up the potential yarns for the next few rows to make sure that I didn’t get any big gaps between colours or any noticeable pattern repeats.
The ripple effect does wonderful things with the colours. If you had the same colours in linear stripes the result would still be vibrant and exciting, but it would also be rather static. The waves create a wonderful dynamism which makes your eyes bounce on the stripes and then, if they move laterally, they pick out groups and wider stripes which change all the time.
You could make a wavy blanket in all sorts of colour combinations and I’m quite sure that a set repeat would look very lovely, but I really do think that bold, bright and beautiful is the easiest way to become a happy hooker.
