I love Christmas time for the general excuse of being able to craft. I, of course, love crochet and knitting but also paper craft so once it hits the beginning of December bunting and homemade decorations start slowly appearing in the house.
I also love bobble stitch blankets, although I've only made a few and I can't quite work out why, I think it's a time thing. I designed a Superhero one a few years ago (it's available on Etsy, link below) and recently that's been selling really well which made me think I wonder whether a Christmas themed blanket in the same style would prove just as popular.
Instead of pencil and squared paper this time I used Stitch Fiddle and within the space of an hour or two I had my nine characters. Yarn bought, yes there were some colours I did not have and despite what some might thing (husband this is directed at you) I do not have what some would describe as a stash of yarn. I have a couple of drawers and that's it. Everything bought for a reason .... well, nearly everything, apart from the hand dyed skeins that were just too lovely to leave behind and are awaiting inspiration for a beautiful knit design, those are my guilty passion when it comes to yarn buying.
Any how, the stitching began, each square taking about 3 hours. The great thing about the bobble stitch is that it creates a nice thick fabric with plenty of hiding places for ends so you don't need to back it to create a good children's blanket, it also almost creates a double sided blanket too so it's a big winner in my book. The only draw back is it uses a lot of yarn because you're creating a bobble with five US double crochets and you work one line of the graph with bobble, repeating it in single crochet. But the result is one I love. I recently had a go at corner to corner crochet for a chart as I offered to help someone with a bespoke design and I can now see the draw of that for making picture blankets. The small square I made whizzed up super quick but I think keeping a count of where you are diagonally takes some concentration. I'm definitely going to explore corner to corner a bit more, perhaps for the next picture blanket as someone suggested I could do an Easter themed one too.
So, getting back to Christmas and the bobble stitch blanket within a few days it came together, a simple slip stitch join and an even easier border and she was done. The pattern is now available over on both my Etsy and Ravelry Stores:
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/christmas-bobble-blanket
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1311833736/crochet-christmas-blanket-pattern-pdf
If you have a picture blanket in mind, whether it's something like this or something from a photo or image please contact me as I am happy to help with design. I can provide a quote right at the start together with a time parameter and will work closely within to ensure the end design is just what you want. I can design to a bobble stitch or corner to corner blanket, just let me know and I'll work out the tension to make it just the right size. Use the contact me here on the website or shoot me an email.