Seaside Celebration Blanket!

Hello… and welcome to my first blog post of 2022! 💙 I hope you’ve all had a good start to the new year…

I’m very happy to introduce my ‘Seaside Celebration’ Blanket which is a slightly smaller version of my original ‘Seaside Stash Busting Blanket’!

On 19th January it will be exactly 4 years since my Seaside Stash Busting Blanket crochet-along was launched! That blanket will always hold a very special place in my heart… 💙

It was my first published blanket design, it was the first crochet-along I hosted and I know that many friendships were made around the world through that blanket, including for me. People crocheted along with me for 35 weeks and a wonderful community of crocheters formed around that blanket which continues to this day! 💙

The Seaside Stash Busting Blanket continues to be one of my most popular designs with thousands of blankets having been crocheted all around the world, each one with a beautiful story to tell through the person who crocheted it, where they were whilst crocheting it and for who it was made! 💙

Some of those stories have been shared with me over the years and I always feel so very touched that a crochet design from within me has sparked something somewhere else in the world… oh the positive force of crochet and creating, and for me the Seaside Stash Busting Blanket encompassed all the good things that can come from crocheting together, whether that’s in person or virtually.

So yes, it’s a very special blanket indeed! 💙

So to celebrate 4 years since the launch of the original blanket, I’ve crocheted it all over again for a special anniversary edition – a ‘Seaside Celebration’ Blanket! This time not using yarns in my stash but using 10 gorgeous colours of Emu Yarns (11 x 100g balls in total), an acrylic yarn that I can wholeheartedly recommend. I’ve also made this anniversary edition a little smaller than the original blanket.

Yarn packs which include all the Emu yarns you’ll need together with the full printed pattern are available from the Knitting Network and it’s been added to my ‘Coastal Crochet Collection’ page I have with them. It’s always a pleasure for me to work with the lovely team at the Knitting Network who make it easy for me to make kits available to you all.

https:/www.theknittingnetwork.co.uk-the-seaside-celebration-blanket-colour-pack

I earn a small amount of commission for each pack sold through the link above which is very much appreciated.

The pattern for this blanket is also available on its own direct from me in my Ravelry and Etsy stores:

Ravelry: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/seaside-celebration-blanket

Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1159784411/seaside-celebration-blanket

And shade cards have been created by Veronica at ‘Simply Shade Cards’ for those of you using the Emu yarns and they’re available here… https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1159050765/seaside-celebration-coastal-crochet

They’re really lovely and it’s always nice for me to be able to support a small business…

This ‘Seaside Celebration’ Blanket is a separate pattern to my original ‘Seaside Stash Busting Blanket’ because although the stitches are the same as in the original Seaside Stash Busting Blanket, some of the rows in this new version start and end differently. This is because the ‘Seaside Celebration’ Blanket has fewer stitches than the original. It has 156 stitches across, whereas the original Seaside Stash Busting Blanket is 180 stitches. It therefore comes up a little smaller and also has fewer rows. The finished blanket measures approximately 102cm x 120cm (40 x 47in)

A question which I’m often asked about my Seaside Stash Busting Blanket is “how many stitches can I use to make it smaller?” There isn’t an easy answer to this question because I didn’t base the original blanket pattern on a particular stitch multiple. Because I designed it as we went (it was a 35 week crochet along), I adjusted each row to keep consistent with my 180 sts and any new suggestions of stitch numbers just wouldn’t work with the pattern without the need for adjustments at the start or end of some rows.

So when I decided to crochet the blanket again it made sense to try a smaller version. This took quite some thought and yes, some good old maths skills, to work out which new stitch count would work best and 156 stitches works very well for a lot of the stitch patterns. I have inevitably had to adjust the beginnings and ends of some rows and write these into the pattern. Hence this ‘Seaside Celebration’ Blanket is a little like a whole new pattern!

It’s been a joy to have this on my hooks again. I really loved revisiting the pattern and I absolutely loved choosing new colours from the Emu range. I’m so happy with how it’s turned out…

It’s been a pretty grey and dreary start to 2022 here on the south east coast of England. It seemed we were having endless grey damp days through Christmas and into the new year. My blanket was done, the new pattern was written up but there just weren’t any opportunities for any sunny seaside photos to showcase the new blanket!

I waited patiently until at last, on 5th January the sun made a glorious appearance. I managed to get these photos in Brighton with the blanket draped over the gorgeously green seafront railings…

And here are a couple of photos taken on Brighton Beach…

The grey days returned for the rest of the week up until these last couple of days when we’ve seen the welcome return of some winter sunshine once again!

Which has been perfect for capturing the sea sunsets together with my blanket…

It’s been beautiful down on the beach these last couple of evenings… cold and crisp with calming seas and stunning sunsets. Here’s a little video footage from yesterday evening to share with you…

And the colour of that silver blue sea as the sun goes down is truly spectacular… it never ceases to leave me spellbound!

And with the sun down there are fabulous opportunities to have some fun with silhouette’s…

And a piece of driftwood provided a brilliant prop for my blanket on the beach…

So there you have it… a beautiful Seaside Celebration!

I’m not hosting this blanket as a crochet-along but please do share progress photos of your blankets if you decide to give this one a go. By sharing your progress over on Instagram or in the Facebook Group you’ll discover that you are in fact crocheting along with others!

Enjoy it… and as always, Happy Crocheting! 😃💙