WIP
Published on September 29, 2021

A Plaid-tastic Blanket Design in Progress

written by

Hey, lovely! Today I want to reveal a WIP that I have had in the works since 2014. Mind you, my design career started in 2012, so this puppy has been waiting since the beginning of my designer days. I was just a fledgling designer! But I had a seed of an idea… And that seed grew into a colorful and versatile plaid blanket.

In this post, I’ll go over all of the behind the scenes progress that has gone into making this piece, from the initial idea and development, to the color layout and composition, and down to naming the design. Of course I have a lot of progress photos to show you as well.

First let’s talk about how I planted the seed for this blanket, and how it finally sprouted seven years later. Read to the end to take a peek at my Chunky Monkey stash Autumn mantel decoration!

My WIP Blanket Design Seed

Once upon a time about 2014 or so, I made a double-stranded navy and cream gingham check blanket, but for whatever reason I never ended up writing the pattern. This is one of the most frustrating parts of designing. So many ideas, so little time! But it’s such a sweet blanket, don’t you think? I really enjoyed hooking it up at the time, and what a total comfort-make. Some projects give you the warm fuzzies the whole time you work on them.

Going Back to the Beginning

Fast forward to the present, when few weeks ago I was itching to do design something, but was feeling uninspired. When I get that way, I like to go all the way back to the beginning and dig deep in my design archives to see if an idea jumps out at me. Take my advice: if you get stuck, go back to your roots.

When I saw the gingham check blanket photos on my computer, and the sketches in my old notebooks, I thought it looked too basic. But, after a while, I realized I couldn’t stop thinking about the clever construction – no sewing, joining, or colorwork! This blanket deserved to be written up as a pattern and put out there into the world. So I got to work!

Development Behind the Scenes

I really wanted to preserve the construction method of this piece, but the color combination was a little too plain, so I decided to go in a completely different direction and make it more creative with a plaid. Side note: I think I will include a layout for the two-color gingham check look, because I still love it.

Links for Quick Reference

Creating the Color Layout

You can read all about how I chose my colors in the Yarn Arrival Post for this project.

Instead of a gingham check color layout, I though a plaid look might just do the trick to jazz up the blanket design. As you might know, purple and orange is honestly my favorite Autumn color combo, so for the layout, I created a plaid looking design in Excel, and then repeated it to get the pattern below. To create the image in Excel, I made the cells completely square and then colored them in based on Scheepjes Chunky Monkey color combos.

Then I pasted my plaid creation into Microsoft Paint and from there I was able to change the colors to make different palettes. I am not tech savvy, so I use my simple computer programs – don’t come for me!

My idea for this project is to have a super-zoomed in close up of a section of plaid until it is almost abstract. Imagine if a whole plaid fabric looked like the graphic below, and then I only selected that tiny circled portion in the corner.

I will make two samples for this blanket design, and here are the palettes I chose. Head to WoolWarehouse or Deramores to shop Chunky Monkey through my affiliate links – this helps support my work at no extra cost to you! Or head to a Scheepjes Retailer near you.

Researching Tartan, Plaid, and Gingham

When it came time for me to consider a name, I did what I always do: I went completely blank. Then some ideas started swirling around, and I started to play with the words Tartan, Plaid, and Woven. It occurred to me at this point that I knew my layout wasn’t a Gingham as that is a more monochromatic look, but I truly had no clue if my layout was a Tartan or a Plaid.

Tartan and Plaid are sometimes used interchangeably, but there are differences. Here are some things I learned while I researched Tartan vs. Plaid:

  • Tartan and Plaid both consist of colorful stripes in both vertical and horizontal directions so that they overlap in a crisscross formation.
  • In Plaids, the horizontal and vertical stripes may differ. For example, there might be a yellow vertical stripe repeated throughout that does not appear in the horizontal striping. The thicknesses could also be inconsistent between horizontal and vertical stripes.
  • In Tartans, the repeat of horizontal stripes is identical to the repeat of vertical stripes, so that neat and tidy square grids are created.

Don’t quote me on any of this though, as it was extremely difficult to get a consensus on any of this information from any source. Frustrating!

Here is a little more about what I mean, if you’re a visual person like me.

Tartan

Tartans have consistent and identical stripe repeats in both directions:

Plaid

And Plaids can mix up the stripes vertically and horizontally:

Gingham

Gingham is a simple tartan that is monochromatic in nature. You know the one:

What it boils down to is: All Tartans are Plaid, but not all Plaids are Tartan.

Since my project takes a plaid graphic and zooms in so much that it’s pixelated and abstract, I decided to name my blanket Pixel Plaid Blanket. Hooray for choosing a name!

Before I share more about Pixel Plaid, let me brag on the magnificent simplicity that is Linen Stitch.

A Quick Word on Linen Stitch

My obsession with Linen Stitch runs deep, and if you have followed me for a while, you know I have a ton of Linen Stitch blanket designs. There is just something about the versatility of the stitch, and the repetitive crochet process that just really calls me.

People always ask if it’s Tunisian Crochet, or even if it’s knit, and I think that can be attributed to the versatile nature of the stitch. You can take the fabric in any direction my increasing, decreasing, or maintaining stitch count, and since the single crochet is such a square stitch (identical height and width) the 45 degree angles created when increasing and decreasing are very easy to work with.

I have made several linen stitch patterns in the past. Check out the visual variety.

Here is a list of those patterns, from top to bottom, left to right. Design name is linked to pattern – all are FREE and all are made with fabulous Scheepjes Yarns!

Pixel Plaid Progress Photos!

Isn’t it deliciously juicy already? I am working with the orange and purple colorway first, but I’m so pumped to start the green version that I just might pull some of that yarn from the box and just start a little bit of it. That’s how I get crochet distractions out of my system: I just work a little tiny bit of the distraction piece and then put it back.

The blanket strips are join as-you-go, so I decided to get a head start on a few of them to play with the color stripes. People always ask me how I manage to be so prolific, and I tell them that I skip around to different parts of the blanket to combat project boredom. It’s when I get bored that my project stalls out and gets banished to the UFO Pile of No Return.

These firey orange in the sunlight is giving me life!

Working with only five colors is not something that I am used to, as you probably know, but there is something about the crisscross nature and striping that makes this project colorful and visually interesting even with so few hues.

I took an abundance of photos of this blanket in progress, but here are a few selected ones. In the photo below, you can kind of see how the “squares” come together – but this project is totally no-sew! The construction is in sprips that are joined at the left hand side using my PLT Join technique.

One of the things I love about Chunky Monkey is the fantastic stitch definition. The fiber content and the thickness of the yarn, plus the anti-pilling nature all help to create a stitch very conducive to linen stitch. The stripes are so clear and discreet!

Isn’t this a beauty?? I’m in love!

And here is a photo of the blanket as it grows. You can see the vertical color stripes as well as the horizontal. What really makes the plaid color stripes stand out are the solid squares where a color crosses over itself.

I love the close-up showing the texture of the linen stitch. I have added on a few stripes, getting a little head start, as this makes me go faster – all in my head? Perhaps… But I think it really does motivate me to continue with the blanket, rather than finishing each strip complete before starting the next one. As I said before, I jump around my blankets nearly every time!

Second Sample Coming Soon

Remember when I said in the Yarny Arrival Post that I had mistakenly ordered the wrong blue color? Well the correct Aqua came in, and here it is with the other colors of the second sample that I will start soon. Isn’t this a great combo? I can’t wait to see the plaid in progress.

Chunky Monkey Autumn Decoration!

And I also talked about my steadily growing Scheepjes Chunky Monkey yarn stash. Well, it’s officially Autumn, and I could not resist hooking up parts of the Attic24 Autumn Garland for my fireplace. I made some of the leaves, and since I used chunky yarn, I realized that I didn’t have to make so many in order to fill up the same amount of space. This was a super fun project which I worked up in an evening!

Here’s to creating home decor with chunky yarn! I find that when I get inspired to decorate a spot in my home, I am very urgent about it, so how lucky that these leaves worked up in a flash.

I’m in love with this! I want fairy lights too, but my kids cringed at that, so the idea may need some work – haha!

Well, I hope you enjoyed a little sneak peek into the behind the scenes of the Pixel Plaid Blanket that will be released as a free pattern soon!

Thank you for reading, and as always, Happy Crafting to you!

Rachele C.

The Art of Crochet Blankets