This blanket is a variation of the Aria Blanket created by Attic24 in Autumn 2020.

I love the look of the original Aria Blanket which is a series of brightly coloured flowery squares connected together. Created by Lucy of Attic24 during the height of the Pandemic, the Aria Blanket was definitely a riot of cheerful and happy colours to brighten up the dullest day. Although I love granny square blankets, I am not patient enough to make them. All that joining different colours and then joining all the squares together. I could imagine losing little bits of the squares down the side of the sofa, knowing me.

But I loved the colours in the Aria pack so much that I wanted to make something with it. I knew I wanted to use the original stitches from the blanket so I had to go along with a Granny Stripe idea.

Back in August 2021, I had had a break from crochet for a few weeks as it was too hot to work on a blanket. I had also got a couple of Cross Stitch UFOs which needed some serious attention. But as the weather got cooler, all I could think about was when I could get started on my Aria Granny Stripe Blanket.

It’s always exciting to start a brand new blanket and on this afternoon I was totally engrossed in something on Netflix (can’t remember what I was watching now) but cracking on with the first few rows.

The next afternoon was just as addictive. I really didn’t want to go out that day. I just wanted to stay in and crochet!

I love my Stylecraft Special Shade Pegs which I bought from Etsy. They are widely available. They’re ideal if you are designing your own colour palettes for your blankets or if you simply want to identify colours. This is especially helpful if you have lots of similar colours. I’m always getting a lot of the Stylecraft blue shades mixed up.

A few more rows sneaked in one evening.

Once you’ve got the full colour repeat in, you are well and truly on the way!

It’s getting longer and longer! I can’t remember how long it took to get to that stage but it grew really quickly!

I was so warm that night! It’s always nice to cosy up with the blanket on your knees when it’s cold. But it’s different when it’s a really hot August day!

Finally, after about 5 weeks I was ready to start putting the border on the blanket. I started with a row of Granny trebles in the Boysenberry colour so that it gave a smooth edging all the way around the blanket.

For the remainder of the border, I added rows of Violet, Sage and Gold in trebles all the way around.

The final row of the border was a scalloped edging using Tomato. This pattern mirrored that of the original Aria blanket, although I didn’t use all the colours in the border. This would have made the stripe one too wide.

To find out about the original Aria Blanket click here:

https://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/aria-blanket.html

For the alternative pattern sequence for a striped version of the Aria blanket see here (but scroll all the way down to the bottom of the post!):

https://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2020/09/index.html

For the Aria Blanket pack, look here:

https://www.woolwarehouse.co.uk/attic24/attic24-aria-blanket-in-stylecraft-special-dk-15-shades

If you love the Attic24 blankets as much as I do, please do let me know which ones you have tried or liked in the comments below. I think they are stunning blankets in such beautiful colour palettes, that they are a true joy to create. I’m definitely going to make another pattern in the future-all I need is far more time!

Love Sam xx