Sometimes you see a new crochet blanket design and just know that you have to make it and who for.
When Helen Shrimpton released her, “Sacred Space” pattern, I got that feeling, I just had to make it and when Ineke, one of Helens testers and designer in her own right, showcased her stunning blanket, I knew instantly that I had to use her colours. They were prefect for my lovely Sister In-law Sarah.
The whole blanket was just perfect.

Luck would have it, Ineke had gone into great detail, even providing a pdf of all her information, from colours used in each and every round, all 114 of them, to the amount of yarn used, using a 4mm hook.
With information at hand, I ordered the yarn and waited in excitement for it to arrive.
Happy mail in the form of yarn is always a joy especially when you can’t wait to sink your teeth into a project.

With yarn and hook finally in hand I started my “Sacred Space” journey.
I have never used a colour pallet of green before, making the whole process more interesting.

Round/Week One, seems to go swimmingly until the last round where my stitch count was well off.
I couldn’t work out where I had gone wrong even after frogging a good few times.
I was getting cross with myself and knew that if I didn’t find the answer to why, I would throw it out the window, failing myself in the process.
I checked the stitch count over and over, checked to see if the pattern had been amended, which of course it hadn’t. I’ve never found a mistake in one of Helens patterns before so why would I now.
I decided to check Part two of the pattern just to double check the stitch count and noticed that round 31 had the same stitch count of 252 that round 30 had.
To save my sanity and the continuation of Sacred Space, I decided that it wouldn’t hurt (I hoped it didn’t) to put an extra round in.
I used hdc as I knew the next round was all back post stitches and Single crochets can sometimes be fiddly to make Back post stitches around.
I added the extra stitches and finally had the right stitch count to continue on with the pattern.
I put it to one side for the day but it was still grinding on my nerves. I hate not getting things right as it makes my confidence slide and feel down on myself. Not a nice feeling at all. On top of that, it was Friday the 13th and a full moon. 🌕
My balance was definitely off but my stubbornness niggled so I reread the pattern again. My mistake jumped off the page and it was yet again time to fog a good few hours of work.
Yes I could have left it, making it my own special touch to the pattern but I just couldn’t, that just wouldn’t do, especially as it’s a present. I wanted/needed it to be a perfect as I can possibly make it.

Part/Week Two, I messed up the colour placement a little due to just glancing at the colour order, not noticing round 31 and 32 were both Lime.
By mistake I had made round 32 in Pistachio, throwing the order off just a smidgin.
I made rounds 33 and 34 in lime, round 35 in Pistachio. I changed rounds 37 and 38 to Pistachio and round 39 to Meadow, in hopes it would look ok and I could get back to Ineke’s beautiful colour order from then on.

So far I’ve had made lots of rookie mistakes, which knocked my confidence off key.
I will one day learn not to crochet when I’m feeling under the weather or my head feels like cotton wool. The rest of the pattern thankfully went swimmingly, with only a few colour placement mistake. I can live with that, it’s unique now.

With the clock ticking and only days until Sarah’s birthday, I had to finish the pattern early. Disappointing for sure but what else could I do, I needed to give it a wash and block it.
With part 7 finished and all ends woven in, (boy there were so many ends) a delicate wash and a block, it was all ready to wrap and gift to Sarah.

I always worry when gifting a blanket, that they won’t like it, or the colouring could be wrong, luckily Sar loved it.

Lets get down to the nitty gritty and tell you about yarn, colour, colour order and cost. I used Stylecraft Special Double Knit, in colours, Cream, Khaki, Meadow, Pistachio and Lime.

I used the following yarn amounts (rounded up) –

Colour	Amount
Cream	3
Khaki	3
Meadow	2
Pistachio	3
Lime	2

I used the following colour order. Ineke’s original can be found here and here.

Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4
1+2 Pistachio	31, Lime	46,47 Meadow	56 up to 63 Cream
3 Khaki	32 Pistachio	48 Pistachio	64 Khaki
4 Lime	33, 34 Lime	49,50 Meadow	65 Pistachio
5+6 Meadow	35 Pistachio	51 Pistachio	66 Khaki
7 Lime	36 Meadow	52,53 Meadow
8 Pistachio	37,38 Pistachio	54,55 Lime
9+10 Cream	39 Meadow
11 Lime	40,41 Lime
12+13 Khaki	42 Meadow
14+15 Meadow	43,44 Pistachio
16 Khaki	45 Lime
17 Pistachio
18 Khaki
19 Pistachio
20 Khaki
21 Pistachio
22 Khaki
23 Pistachio
24 Khaki
25 Pistachio
26 Khaki
27,28,29,30 Cream

Week 5	Week 6	Week 7
67,68 Cream       69 Khaki  70 Pistachio  71 Khaki  72,73 Cream  74 Khaki  75 Pistachio  76,77 Cream	78,79 Lime 80 Khaki 81 Meadow 82 Pistachio 83 Cream 84 Pistachio 85 Cream 86 Meadow 87 Cream 88 Khaki 89 Pistachio 90 Cream	91 Pistachio 92 Khaki 93 Meadow 94 Pistachio 95 Khaki 96 Cream 97 Khaki 98,99 Lime 100 Pistachio

The total cost of yarn used was £25.35, however I brought the full amount needed to make the whole blanket, at a cost of £31.20. I brought the yarn from Wool Warehouse. I’m sorry to say, I forgot to measure the finished blanket and didn’t manage to take a photo of the completed blanket in all it’s glory.

Even though working to a deadline is always a little stressful, I really did enjoy making Sacred Space.
Helen’s designs are always exceptional. Always full of texture and always full of new techniques and stitches.
I always learn something new. All in all, even after a dodgy start, I really enjoyed Ineke’s version of Sacred Space.

Would I make it again?
Hell yes, I would.
I think it would look absolutely breathtaking in a solid colour like cream or a timeless white.
Maybe one day I will find the time.

If you are not familiar with, Helen Shrimpton from Crystals and Crochet, please pop on over to her blog and have a gander, you will be spoilt for choice.
You can also find Helen on, Ravelry, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube,  Deramores, Stylecraft Yarns, Etsy and her Facebook group Helen’s Hookaholics.

You can find Ineke, on Pinterest here, on Ravelry here, on Facebook here, and on Instagram here.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Too-da-loo for now.

🧶🧶🧶