Rainbow Crocheted Blankets
by Amanda Perkins · Published by Search Press
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Meet the Author
Hey there, can you introduce yourself?
I'm Amanda Perkins and an obsessive crocheter, I've never followed a pattern, I tend to make it up as I go along.
I'm fascinated by colour and shape and treat every project as an design experiment, sometimes they don't work and I end up doing a lot of frogging just to get the effect I want, but I normally get there in the end.
I've been designing for over 10 years and have always aimed to excite and inspire my audience.
Tell us a bit about the book?
The book contains 10 blanket designs each design has several colour variations. The designs all use simple crochet shapes and focus on colour rather than crochet technique.
I encourage my readers to use the designs as a starting point to create their own masterpieces.
What was the inspiration behind it?
The original idea was to design a set of rainbow blankets, each one being based on a different rainbow colour. A lot of the designs are inspired by textiles, such as Persian carpets, quilts and fabric's my mother and aunt used to sew with.
Which is your favourite project?
My favourite is Rose Window as it uses lots of different yarns, some of them from my favourite indie dyer's and several other yarn suppliers.
I started in the middle and worked out, the colours were unplanned, I just used whatever seemed right.
What is your craft space like?
I have a large wool room, full of books, plants and yarn it also contains my computer and is where I do all my writing and graphic design work.
I crochet on my comfy sofa in the lounge with my team of helpers who consist of 2 dogs and a cat who likes to test all my blankets for their comfort factor.
Have you always been creative?
Yes, I've crocheted all my life, I used to make art quilts and sew all my own clothes. I can knit but its very basic knitting although I'm quite good at intarsia as it uses my colour skills.
I went to art collage and specialised in textiles.
When did you first start crafting?
I can't remember when, but my granny taught me at the age of four or five.
The first thing I remember creating as a sewn cuddly dog, probably when I was about 10 or 11. I had the dog for a long time, my second daughter claimed it as her's and when she lost it I made her another one, 15 years later she still has it.
Who are your crafty heroes?
My favourite authors are Terry Pratchett and Tolkien, but I also read a lot of mythology, history and fairy stories.
My 2 craft hero's are Kaffe Fasset and Sophie Digard, I like to think of my work as a mix of the two of them.
Where do you find inspiration?
I live in a small village on Exmoor, high on a sea cliff overlooking the Bristol channel. Most of my inspiration comes from the landscape I live in and the changing colours over the seasons. Most of my blankets have a secondary inspiration such as space & the night sky, Persian carpets, Aboriginal art just to name but a few.
What's next for you?
Lots and lots more experimental blankets which I self publish as pdf patterns on-line, I sell them on Etsy and Ravelry, you can find me if you search for queenieamanda or Amanda Perkins crochet blankets.
And at sometime in the future maybe a second book focusing on colour techniques, but that's a while off.
Publisher's Description
Amanda's bold and inspiring use of colour and pattern gives stunning results that are deceptively easy to achieve. This colourful book contains illustrated block-by-block guides to creating ten stunning blankets, with colour variations providing twenty further creations. Each of the ten blankets is constructed from a series of simple motifs, including squares, hexagons and triangles: creating a large and sumptuous blanket is simply a matter of piecing together simple, colourful motifs into wonderful arrangements. This book is for crocheters ready to move on from the basic granny square and looking for a range of motifs in different shapes and sizes that can be joined together to create sophisticated finished pieces. The book begins with some basic instruction on yarns and hooks, how to join motifs and sew in ends, but no instruction on how to crochet, as this is not a beginner's book. For each blanket there is an index of motifs used, accompanied by the instructions for how to make them: both in written form and as a chart. Also provided are the various 'fillers', designed to fill the little gaps between the motifs in the finished blanket or throw. Each project has a full colour chart, and takes the reader block by block through the entire construction process.
