2022 VVCAL, My Blanket Stack
Published on August 9, 2023

My Blanket Stack: 2022 VVCAL Rainbow Blanket Photo Dump!

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Hello, gorgeous crafter! Today I want to share with you all of the photos from a recent FO that I completed for a buyer during my Summer sample sale! I have two sample sales a year, one in the Summer and one in the Winter. This blanket was a sample from my 2022 VVCAL. I used different yarns to get such a range of color, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it, and more fun – show you all the photos!

Yarns Used in this Blanket

In this blanket, I used three Scheepjes Colour Packs.

  • 1 x Catona Colour Pack
  • 2 x Stone Washed & River Washed Colour Packs
  • Plus some extra from10g balls that I had left over from previous projects, so that I could complete the size blanket that I wanted

Catona Colour Pack

Shop the Catona Colour Pack through my affiliate links to help support my work at no extra cost! Or head to a Scheepjes Retailer near you.

Stone Washed & River Washed Colour Pack

Shop the Catona Colour Pack through my affiliate links to help support my work at no extra cost! Or head to a Scheepjes Retailer near you.

These yarns are not the same make-up, and they are ever so slightly different thicknesses. I use them together anyway because I have always done this in order to reach a high range of colors. For this project, I used a 3mm hook for both yarns when I made the hexies and it worked out perfectly.

2022 VVCAL Demo Hexies

To create this blanket, I used all of the demo hexagons that I worked during the designing phase of the 2022 VVCAL. There are 35 unique hexagon patterns in the VVCAL, and for each of them, there are probably 4-5 demo hexies that I go through to get the pattern tweaked until it is exactly how I want it. I don’t frog those hexies, rather I just use them together in a demo blanket – why waste them?

Here are some of the first hexagons that I made for the 2022 VVCAL. It was space themed, so all of the designs have a space-related object as its namesake.

You can check out all of the patterns and their space names on Ravelry. Everytime I make a hexagon blanket with a fun color range, I like to make a little circle with the motifs. It makes me happy!

These are some Catona hexagons. You can see how they have smoother stitches because they are made with pure cotton.

The Stone/River Washed hexagons are more marled because they have multiple colors twisted in the same yarn for a mottled and hazy effect.

Even with these differences. the yarns work quite well together in the same piece!

2022 VVCAL Demo Blanket Beginnings

And now, introducing: the 2022 VVCAL Demo Blanket progress pics!! I took a while deciding how I wanted to lay out my hexagons before they were all finished so that I would know how many of each color I would need for the fade.

Hashtags: #VVCAL and #CypressTextiles as always

Here are some of the hexagons on my couch, sorted by color family. I’m making sure I have a nice distribution amongst the colors.

One thing I love to do in color-fade blankets is to take the rainbow, make it into a circle, then split it at a random placement. This way instead of just going red to violet, I can start anywhere and continue through the rainbow, and it makes for a visually impactful layout.

In this piece, I split the rainbow between the yellow and the yellow-green. In the photo above, you can see the yellow in the forefront, and then all the way through to the yellow-greens in the background.

PLT Join Method

I started piecing together the hexagons from both ends of the blanket so I could begin to let the layout fall into place. The join is my single crochet with PLT Join, and I chose this because it allows you to join the motifs in any order all around the blanket, allowing for the most organic layout build-up.

Since you join on the final round, the motifs are right next to each other without any “background color”, so you can just place the motif and PLT Join on the adjacent sides.

You can see in these photos that not all of the color hexagons are completed for the area that I am joining, so I just left the 10g ball of the color that I want to put there as a placeholder so when I look back at the photos I know what goes where.

With the PLT Join, you can add in the motifs later to fill in the holes.

Blanket Construction Photo Dump!

This is one of the first layouts that I mocked up, but eventually I ended up adding a couple more rows to make the blanket longer.

These are some shots I took just so I could know which color would go where.

For the 10g balls that you see, I added those in after the VVCAL was over, so they would all become a simple design that goes fast, so that I could quickly finish the blanket.

I just love these saturated colors together in the light. So pretty!

And here is the whole thing.

When the blanket is done, you can see that therea are some hexies that are not exactly as laid out in these photos. That’s because I never commit 100% to a layout. If I did, then I would be upset if I somehow messed up the “perfect” layout that I created, and I would feel unable to recreate it…

Now if you have been following me any length of time, you know I believe perfection is a MYTH, and that’s why you feel like you’re always chasing it and never reach it. It simply does not exist. As an anti-perfectionist, I know that if I can make a gorgeous layout once, I can easily do it again.

If you would like to read more about letting go of perfection, you can check out my Creative Clarity Series.

The yarn colors will be absolutely beautiful in different configurations, and I just feel it out every time. I never freak out if my layout evolves along the way.

Final Blanket Layout Vibes

Now we have reached the final motifs and layout. This is how the blanket ended up – not 100% of course but very nearly.

I filled in the half motifs down the sides here as well.

This is always my favorite type of project as it’s the one where I feel most like an artist, painting with yarn. All of the colors and the amazing layout is just mesmerizing and gets me in a flow state.

A few more shots just because I want to catch every angle.

She even looks beautiful all crumpled up.

Completed 2022 VVCAL Demo Blanket

Here she is all blocked and laid out!

I added a very simple border so it wouldn’t detract from the layout, and I decided to go with tiny bobble stitches and puff stitches to add some weight to the border and give the blanket amazing drape.

One last shot of the full piece. I enjoyed every stitch and can’t wait for the next color-fade blanket.

Thank you for stopping in to see my giant FO reveal and like thirty photos!

Happy crafting,

Rachele C.

The Art of Crochet Blankets

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