Vintage Sweethearts blanket is now online!

I don't know if you'll remember me talking about this blanket way back in April last year? I think I might not have blogged about it as such and just shared in on the podcast at the time, so it's very possible that it's new to you.

This is my Vintage Sweethearts blanket and I designed it for Crochet Now Magazine to be their Official CAL of 2017. I always find it rather a daunting task to think about starting a CAL design, there is so much to consider and it can be a little overwhelming in the beginning.

What really helps me though, is to find an idea or a story that I like, or that means something to me, that the design of the blanket can start to form around. This time the idea can to me quite clearly and as is often the case with my blankets, invoked lots of childhood memory for me.

My crafting has always been inextricably linked with my childhood. I feel like it's something that connects me now and in this moment, right back to my very roots. It comes of having crafty and practical grandparents and parents who between them always had a yarny, sewing, crafty or construction project on the go. So of course, young me was pretty much the same, drawing, colouring, glueing, stitching and yes, knitting too.

They were always very happy to pass on some new skill, partly to share to joy of it I suppose, but mostly just to keep me amused and out of other mischief too, no doubt. It's those memories that I started to draw on for this blanket. I sat thinking of all of those clever Grans, Nans, Grandmas, Aunts and Mothers who sat and hooked up yarny treasures and patiently took the time to pass those skills on. To me, and I'll bet to so many of you too.

This blanket is a sort of my way of make a tribute to those wonderful ladies.

: :

Now I know that lots of you already know all about this blanket and so I have to thank all of you lovely and totally wonderful people out there that joined in the CAL last year and followed along with the progress each month. I have had the pleasure of seeing some gorgeous blankets appear and follow them as they grew which has been amazing.

Thank you all so much for making it a such a huge success!

There are also many of you though that didn't find out about the blanket and the CAL until things were well under way, or had difficultly in getting all the copies of the magazine. It is a UK publication and it's not always easy to track these things down if you are overseas, so you've been very sweet in asking me if there is any chance that the pattern would ever be available in another format.

Well, I'm very happy to say that now it is.

The official CAL has ended and so I'm really excited to be able to make this pattern available digitally and for purchase online. Yippee!

I've combined all of the separate CAL parts into one comprehensive pattern file and so you'll be able to find everything you need to make the whole blanket in one PDF.

You can also choose if you would prefer to work from UK or US terms, as I have converted the whole pattern from the original UK version for my US friends.

I shan't go into all the nitty gritty here, as I have all the details listed on the Ravelry page. Just click the links below if you want to find out more, and if you like, to make a purchase!