Designing Trio Blankets

I absolutely LOVE the Trio Blanket crochet pattern by Susan Carlson. https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/trio-blanket. This is one of hers.

They are so fun to crochet, because the colors shift every ten rows or so and it’s all just threes, so I can watch a movie and not mess up. Also, there is no weaving in at the end or need for a border to strengthen the sides, because the three cakes of yarn are continuous. Finally, the finished blanket is everybody’s favorite, because it is not just gorgeous, but also soft and light-weight with a wonderfully luxurious drape.

There are only two tricky parts. One is turning with three cakes attached; I love this pattern so much that I bought three wooden crochet bowls for the cakes. The other tricky part is designing them. They are made with Scheepjes (sheep yes) Whirl Cakes @ https://www.jimmybeanswool.com/knitting/yarn/Scheepjes/Whirl.asp. There are FIFTY different options, each with multiple color changes within the cake! Even after narrowing it down, the permutations of middle to outside vs. outside to middle add to the confusion … or glory, depending on how much one enjoys designing. ::I LOVE it::

I want to make a Trio Blanket for Bootz’s First Holy Communion gift and invited him to help me design it. The kid’s got an EYE. He came up with some yarn combos I wouldn’t have thought to try. He came up with the 6 three-somes (above). But it doesn’t end there. For each combo, there are four permutations, which makes for a staggering amount of choice.

While I was puttering with Paint, trying to make graphics to help him figure out his #1 favorite, I figured out a great way to design these things. First, I did a graphic of each cake, with its name, and a copy/paste clip of the most representative cross section. Then I combined the three cakes on to a single template where I could copy/paste the cross sections to show the four permutations.

I was having so much fun, I worked up a design I’ve had in mind for ages for my peacock-loving daughter. I grabbed a photo off the net and matched up the yarns as best as I could. Scheepjes Whirls sadly do not have any cakes with that brilliant turquoise, but I really like the combo I came up with. Maybe one of these days, I’ll even have time to make it. I’m a slow crocheter; each one takes me up to 6 months to complete … which is probably not a bad thing, since the yarn costs $100 per blanket. Yoiks.