Sunday 28 January 2018

Butterly Garden Blanket - Free Pattern

Lottie & Albert Butterfly Blanket


One of my most popular makes that I always get asked about is the Butterly Blanket I made last year for my friend's new baby. I loved making this blanket: just enough stitch variation to keep my interest over a larger project, but easy enough to remember the pattern after a few repeats.

The finished blanket is around 85x85cm, and uses a 8ply (aran/worsted weight) cotton blend yarn, which gives it the most beautiful weight. The pattern uses a crochet technique called filet crochet, which allows you to create grid-like lace patterns by chaining and missing stitches, and using just a few stitches

If you'd like to make your own, you can find all the details of the yarn and pattern I used below.


I used:

5mm (US H) crochet hook
Cotton Flowers Variegated Yarn Cake, Colour 110, 8-Ply = 188m / 205yds per 100g, 50% cotton/50% Acrylic
An amended Butterfly Garden Square pattern, by Chris Simon



The Yarn

I used a gradient yarn from Cotton Flowers yarns based in Germany, you can find a link to the shop by clicking here. I chose an 8ply (aran/worsted weight) in a beautiful colourway that went from light grey, through to pale pink, and back into dark grey.

The 8ply doesn't seem to be available in to shop at the moment, but you may be able to request some by contacting the shop owner. You could also achieve a similar size by using two 4ply Scheepjes Whirls in the same colourway held together, or a variegated or ombre aran/worsted weight yarn.







The Pattern

I used a free pattern from Chris Simon on Ravelry, Butterly Garden Square, which can be found by clicking here. I am not able to publish the pattern here, as it does not belong to me, but please find the details of how I modified the pattern to create my full blanket below.

The pattern is for a 12in square, which features two pattern repeats of the butterflies. I followed Rounds 1-11 of Chris Simon's pattern, then continued the pattern repeat until I had 9 rows of butterflies. My aim was to use the whole yarn cake, so if you are using a different yarn, you may be able to create another few rows of butterflies. The beauty of the pattern is that it is very easy to replicate over either a small or larger number of repeats.

To finish my blanket, I then added three rows of UK treble crochet (US double), and a final border of what I called 'modified crab stitch':

Modified crab stitch
*Insert hook into first stitch to the RIGHT (not the left as normal) from front to back, yarn over and pull up a loop (two loops on hook), yarn over and pull through both loops, chain one and miss next stitch. Keep working from * to your right around the blanket. 

The pattern by Chris Simon uses US terminology. If you are more familiar with UK terms, I have provided a conversion chart below.



US to UK stitch conversion

H hook  5mm hook
ch         chain 
sts        stitches
sl st      slip stitch
sp         space
sk         skip
sc         US single crochet (UK double)
dc         US double crochet (UK treble) 
tr           US treble crochet (Uk double treble) 

For detailed stitch descriptions, please see below.





Stitch Descriptions

Slip stitch Insert hook into required stitch, yarn over and pull up a loop (two loops on hook), pull the loop just formed through the first loop on the hook. 

US single crochet (UK double) Insert hook into required stitch, yarn over and pull up a loop (two loops on hook), yarn over and pull through both loops. 

US double crochet (UK treble) Yarn over (two loops on hook) and insert into required stitch, yarn over and pull up a loop (three loops on hook), yarn over and pull through two loops (two loops on hook), yarn over and pull through remaining two loops. 

US treble crochet (UK double treble) Yarn over twice (three loops on hook) and insert into required stitch, yarn over and pull up a loop (four loops on hook), yarn over and pull through two loops (three loops on hook), yarn over and pull through two loops (two loops on hook), yarn over and pull through remaining two loops. 

Modified crab stitch 
*Insert hook into first stitch to the RIGHT (not the left as normal) from front to back, yarn over and pull up a loop (two loops on hook), yarn over and pull through both loops, chain one and miss next stitch. Keep working from * to your right around the blanket.







I do hope you have enjoyed this little write-up, and that the additional information has been useful. If you do make a Lottie and Albert Butterly Blanket using this modification of Chris Simon's original pattern, please let me know and use the hashtags #lottieandalbert #lottieandalbertbutterflyblanket

You can also find Chris Simon's Ravelry page, and all her patterns here.

Happy making!

Lindsey x



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8 comments

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Hi, I love this pattern and can't wait to make it. It seems the link for the yarn cake you used isn't working now, so I may have to find an alternative. Do you remember how many metres long the yarn cake is? Thank you!

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  3. I also would like to make this however Sophie stated the yarn is no longer available. Is there an alternative?

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  4. Where can I find pattern please

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    Replies
    1. Chris Simon #17 Butterfly Garden Square pattern is free on Ravelry :)

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  5. I was just wondering how you repeated the pattern after the initial square was done? Which rows did you repeat? I can't figure out how to keep going after the first square.

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    Replies
    1. Did you ever find an answer? I'm having the same problem.
      Thanks.

      Delete
  6. Am I right that you did not complete row 11 during the blanket? From what I can make of it, it looks like rows 7-10, increasing a butterfly group this 4-row pattern. Is this right?

    ReplyDelete

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