Iona blanket + Illuminated Knits
I'm delighted to announce the release of a new blanket pattern - Iona! 
This blanket was inspired by the richly decorated carpet pages of illuminated manuscripts; it's assembled from individual squares, worked separately in the round from the centre out, and then attached with a three-needle cast-off or seamed together.
The contrasting colourwork effect is achieved by striping yarns of two different colours, and slipping the cabled stitches on every other round.
Whilst the cable pattern that forms the Celtic knot was certainly a challenge to design, I think it was actually more difficult to decide on the colours to use in the blanket! The pattern uses Malabrigo Sock, which comes in a gorgeous array of variegated and semi-solid shades. I love how the subtle changes in colour evoke a faded wash of ink - perfect for a design inspired by illuminated manuscripts.
Here are some of my original colour choices (along with some early sketches of the knot that I scribbled in my faithful Moleskine notebook!)
After a lot of swatching, sketching and playing around with coloured pencils, I finally settled on a colour scheme that uses 5 colours for 4 differently arranged squares: Turner (green); Ochre (golden-yellow); Archangel (pink-purple-orange); Aguas (blue-green) and Rayon Vert (purple-green).
Once I'd decided on the colours, it was a lot of fun to work on the individual squares and watch the blanket slowly growing. I particularly love how the shade 'Ochre' really pops in contrast to the other colours - I used this shade for the i-cord edging that completes the blanket.
Iona is the first pattern in Illuminated Knits - a mini-collection of designs inspired by the rich colours and decorations of Celtic illuminated manuscripts and using beautiful shades of Malabrigo yarn.
The collection will feature three accessory patterns (including the Iona blanket) and one garment pattern. It’s available to pre-order now as an e-book for £8.50 and you will receive the patterns as they are released over the coming months.
If you’d prefer to wait until all the patterns are released before buying the e-book, you can sign up to my newsletter to be notified when the collection is complete!