The Study of Jewelled Lanterns Blanket Pattern

The Study of Jewelled Lantern Blanket is the next development in the progress of exploring lacework with a Turkish Lantern approach. Using past inspiration of the Study of Series, with skills picked up along the way. I will share more inspiration below.

This blanket will be 20 Octagon Motifs, with 12 connecting square motifs, and triangle motifs to fill in the edges with a border.

Background of Design Skills

The sources of inspiration have come from various designs of my own from the past. In fact, the first-ever Stitch Along for The Crochet Crowd followed the design from Red Heart called Octagon and Squares. But it upset people even back in 2013, which surprised me. The edges were not flat, but I didn't learn my lesson well enough and encountered the same complaints again in two more designs, though they were hexagonal.

People want flat edges; the complaints that are coming in are shocking.

What I realized is that when I design with flat edging, the comments calm down, and the next two designs that came from me were back to octagons with square centers, but also with triangles to fill in the spaces.

As the years progressed, my signature concept of textures and overlays began to take hold.

As recently as 2 years ago, with the Study of Christmas cookies, doing more overlays and texture.

What changed me in progression is that the Study of Possibilities took so many rounds to go from a point to a circle. While designing the Study of Reality, I wanted to get back to a square as fast as possible.

I learned how to fast-track the point process by adding in motifs that are joined as you go.

What Prompted The Study of Jewelled Lanterns?

It was an advertisement for a special hands-on workshop to go to the city closest to me and have an afternoon workshop on decorating Turkish lanterns by gluing glass to an existing clear globe. I had just finished rewriting Daniel's Winter Blizzard Blanket. I got thinking, what would I have done differently from when Daniel (my partner) did his design nearly 10 years ago, with the knowledge I picked up?

In visiting my friends Maureen and Sindi's house and looking at their tiles behind their wood stove, I thought, " Don't reinvent a new snowflake, look at the flow of the designs and imagine it in crochet.

Having visited Turkey many years ago and seen the stunning Turkish Lanterns, I imagined, from the advertisement and using the lanterns as inspiration, a possible new design.

It became an inspiration enough to think about a design, colours and my signature approaches.

I knew based on consumer complaints that my new blanket would need to have flat edges. The design needs to be octagons with connecting squares with triangles, like previous designs I have done.

In the design, which took me a full day to do, you can see pieces of previous designs worked into the octagon. A bit of lace work, overlays of long double crochet stitches and even the corners used in the Study of Reality to force the round circle outward.

Using black, like grout, to separate sections for visual relief, the lanterns are filled with colour. I had a choice to do either a lantern motif with all solid triangles of the same colour, or pair them up or even make two groups of four. I thought the pairing was the best approach and a more effective use of the many colours needed for this concept.

I was tasked with keeping the motif looking lacy throughout, and the connecting square, which I have already designed, is lacy in approach as well.

You will find clusters, popcorns, long double crochet, 2 together stitches, chains, triple trebles, spiked stitches, etc. There is a lot of opportunity to learn new stitches within a single motif.

The Hardest Part of the Design

I ran into two obstacles:

• I wanted 4 different coloured motif styles, but with only 7 colours, I would end up with motifs that aren't truly on their own, colour-wise. It would have an overlap of colouring in the rays. I paused the design for a few days to think about it. I paired it back to only 3 different colour ways instead.
• The 8th round has the Fleur de Lys Stitch, and I have just done that six times, but it wouldn't sit flat or was too tight. I kept trying and trying to get it right. In the picture, it's the pumpkin colour. Gawd, that was a tough stitch. I nearly quit trying, then tried to figure out a new approach. It would have been too easy to make that round a solid round, but I really wanted lacework.

Accusations of Copyright

Since the release of my concept, there has been a belief that I am copying an existing pattern. I have shared with you my inspiration above for my design.

In our index, we have the right-up and direct link to Janie Crow, Crochet Persian Tales Blanket. I can see why people think I have copied her, but I haven't. From a distance, I can see why people think that, but it's the granularity of details that separates the two designs.

It's too easy to copy another design, and I wouldn't attempt it, since I refer people to Janie's pattern through my website. If I were being shady, I would take my referral down to her, but that doesn't help her. I'm pretty sensitive about designing to ensure my thought processes, steps and more are followed.

I actually quit designing the Study of Circus Blanket due to backlash, as it drew negativity for my elephants walking around the center of the blanket. People said I was mocking the Republican Party of the United States when it was intended for children to be playful. I couldn't unsee the backlash, so I quit in mid-design.

With the Study of Jewelled Lanterns, I am going to continue working on my progress and the steps involved in the design process. I may not have convinced others that I haven't copied Janie's pattern, but I know in my own mind that I haven't, and I can rest easy knowing that.

Current Colours Used

The colours have yet to be verified for quantity as this pattern is currently in development.

Caron Simply Soft, 6 oz, 170.1 g /  315 yds, 288 m

• A - Pumpkin - 2 Balls
• B - Black - 4 Balls (ON HAND) 
• C - Pistachio - 2 Balls
• D - Gold - 2 Balls
• E - Harvest Red - 2 Balls
• F - Pagoda - 2 Balls
• G - Feathered Gray - 2 Balls
• H - Blue Mint - 2 Balls 
• I - Off White - 1 Ball

Time Frame to Completion

It's unknown at this time. I am currently facing medical complications and working when I feel good and resting when my body is kicking my butt.