Mission Falls 1824 Crochet blankets

Fresh laundry

Last week we had hot sunshine, it's a secret pleasure of mine to go a little domestic with the laundry then hang it out to dry in the sun, because nothing beats the smell of sun dried fabric. It's good to get the heavy and hard to dry things out there too and let nature do the work. I posted these pictures of my stack of freshly laundered crochet blankets, and Chester taking advantage of my hesitation putting them away... with a totally cattitude expression on his face. Lots of people commented on the gorgeous colours of the blankets so...

Chester's new sleep spot

I thought it would be fun to share the story behind the top blanket, because although I'm all about the beads, confess love of a good yarn almost as much. Yup, owning up to being the curator of quite the collection of yet to be used yarns; and so try to find time to knit and crochet too.

These are a matching pair of blankets about a yard square, they sit over the backs of the sofas in winter, it's a favourite cat snooze spot as the radiators are nearby.

The yarn is one I totally love, by Mission Falls, a pure cotton yarn in a richly vintage range of colours, a joy to work and a good double knit weight with lots of strength in it. Sadly it was discontinued in 2011 and is much missed by lovers of colour the world over. The artist's hand behind the colour palette was Mags Kandis and you can find her patterns on Ravelry.

Building the first blanket

One summer I began work, starting with small square blocks for the centres, rows of stitches, followed by more blocks then more rows. I would take the yarn basket out and sit on the lawn and work, making it up as I went along and playing that fun game of choosing which jewel and cool colours to work next, then picking out the edges with inky black.
At that time my constant creative companion was Holly, a dear sweet soul of a cat. We made a game, (Cat owners will know it, cats love to swipe stuff off the table/shelf/windowsill and watch it drop to the floor, regardless of how precious/delicate/mess creating it might be).
I'd put all the finished squares on the bench, then she'd gently hit them off one by one, and that was the sequence in which they got added to the blanket. She enjoyed participating, and enjoyed even more, spending many winter evenings snoozing on her finished blanket on the back of the sofa.

Holly choosing squares.

Holly was a very poorly rescue kitten when she arrived with us, but went on to have a long and happy life. Years later I still miss her calm presence and outrageously loud purr.
But, there are always pets in need of a safe haven and now it's good to see Chester enjoying the Mission Falls blankets too.