Floating Lanterns pattern out now…

Well it is time for a new pattern and a special one. Floating Lanterns was for a long time on my mind and earlier this year i already gave you the choice to this pattern out of four lovely options. It came out secondly as the Messier pattern was chosen first. In the end i’m glad it worked out this way as i had full inspiration for the Messier on my mind, but a recent journey through China gave me the last piece i needed for this lantern pattern. So again i feel there is a time and place for everything and the time for this pattern is now.

The floating lanterns are inspired on the Lantern festival that is celebrated each year at Newyears day in China. It also known as the festival of light. It gives a magical look too see all thos burning lanterns on the water and floating in the air. The festival exists for over 2000 years now and nowaday the festival is a celebration with family, coming together and light some lanterns. But back in the days there was a more religious meaning to this festival.

Over 2000 years ago this festival began in the Western Han dynasty. Emperor Wu came up with this idea to honour and worship the Taiyi rituals on a specific day. Taiyi was one of the universe’s souvereigns. After the reign of this emperor was gone there was a lot of unrest and war in the land. So the new emperor Wen took over the reign and came up with the idea to make the day everybody had to honour Taiyi would be further known as a day the peace returned. On this day each and every person, each household had to light candles and lanterns. So the festival of light began. Later on there also was emperor Ming which was a devoted Buddhist. He infused the Buddhistic belief to light candles in temples and palaces for Buddha. Both infusions make the Lantern festival wat it is today.

So hearing the history from my guide in China, seeing temples, lanterns and lights in temples made my experience fully complete to finish this pattern idea. So i came up with a lantern tile which had to hold the shape but also had to reflect a floating idea. And above that it had to be colorful as the festival is full of celebration, color and tradition. So a hexagon was born with all these ingredients.  And i was happy with it. Creating the right conditions around it made the whole thing complete.

So after i was happy with the design it was time to crochet all the hexagons. And this pattern has some nice adds which makes it a real fast thing to make. There are a lot of colors which can be carried on through the back to save some loose ends. But the stitchwork is really easy. And besides that the joining of hexagons is really fast and easy although it may look like a complex way.

I only had a doubt of how i had to build up the motifs. The first idea was to just make a regular blanket size which is also possible with half and whole hexagons. But halfway through i came up with another great idea. Why not turning the whole thing into one big lantern shaped hexagon. I really loved the idea of creating a whole different type of blanket. And the end result is so great.

Well i think it is time for some practical information about this pattern.

Crochet hook 4,5 mm needed

Yarn needed :

For this pattern i used Scheepjes Stonewashed yarn which comes in balls of 50 grams with a length of 130 meters. As this pattern holds a lot of different colorshades for the lanternpart in each motif it is also possible to use small skeins out of the Stonewashed/Riverwashed colourpack. Or you can also choose to just use one color for all lanterns. So options are endless. First the colors and amounts for this blanket including border and joining :

Yarn A : 803 Black Onyx – 7 balls of 50 grams needed ( 340 grams used )

Yarn B : 817 Citrine – 2 balls of 50 grams needed ( 70 grams used )

Yarn C : 833 Beryl – 2 balls of 50 grams needed ( 84 grams used )

Yarn D : this is the lantern color which is made out of different colorshades. I used colors : 825 Malachite, 807 Red Jasper, 811 Deep Amethyst, 816 Coral, 835 Rhodochrosite, 823 Carnelion, 832, Enstatite, 830 Lepidolite, 834 Morganite, 824 Turqoise, 827 Peridot, 836 Tourmaline, 826 Fosterite, 810 Garnet and 803 Canada Jade.

For a motif you need 10 grams of yarn and a half motif needs 6 grams. In total you need 262 grams of yarn for this.

Yarn E : 805 Blue Apatite – 6 balls of 50 grams needed ( 265 grams used )

Yarn F : 828 Larimar – 6 balls of 50 grams needed ( 295 grams used )

The finished size of this hexagon blanket is 165 cm x 165 cm / 65 inches x 65 inches

Basic stitches are used in the pattern,

The pattern holds written instructions guided by step by step photos. When bought you receive a PDF file to download. The orignal pattern is written in English with US terms but there is also a Dutch version available.

And of course the pattern is for sale in my Ravelry store and Etsy shop.

Well i hope you all like this new pattern as all the others i created so far. The first comments and previews on social media were accepted so good. So many comments and a huge amount of likes gave me a real secure feeling this pattern needs to be out there. So thank you all for that in advance. I hope we will see so many different new versions out of this pattern. What i also liked very much by photographing this finished blanket was the similiar idea of the Hydra blanket. I came across such a nice wall hanging of  lanterns that i couldn’t resist buying it. And i felt i had to present this just the way Scheepjes did with my Hydra blanket as it has the same magic touch. So i’m not only proud on this new design, but also on the way it is presented.