Rhossili Bay
Sunny Beach Blanket
(Tide in version)
Click on a post at the bottom of the page for square patterns
10th August 2021
Rhossili Bay on Gower in Wales has to be up there with my favourite beaches. I decided to make it the inspiration location for the sunny version of my beach blanketscape. I planned my summer holiday to go bike camping there & also in Pembrokeshire, another beautiful coastal location in Wales.
I only had 2.5 days at Rhossili, so the chances of getting the right weather, tide and sun position at the the same time was going to be a long shot. But I got two out of the three on the first day, with perfect clouds and sky, just with the tide a looong way out.
I had a lovely day wandering the 3 miles of sandy beach in the sunshine, happy days!
The next day was lost to drizzly rain all day, but managed a walk with a long lost friend around the Mumbles, near Swansea.
12th August 2021
Day 3 was a moving day - heading for Pembrokeshire. I packed up as much as I could then had a quick trip to Rhossili to get some high tide photos. The light was beautiful though it meant the sand was a bit in the shade.
I was hoping to get a two-tone sea, where the sand / sun means that the sea nearer the beach is a milkier colour, but the conditions weren't right for it here. So, I will use a mixture of these two pictures and some artistic licence to make a sunny blanketscape!
The post list below is for a tide-in version of the sunny beach blanket (for the tide out version see the Saunton Sands blanket).
This is the final design, square this time, 6 rows x 6 columns of textured squares to match the patterns I saw on the beach.
The posts below will provide the 6 patterns for these squares in case anyone fancies making their own blanketscape.
I used 3.75 mm needles and Stylecraft Special DK colours listed below. Each square uses 10-12 g of yarn.
I suggest you block each square individually before sewing them up, as some of the patterns have a tendency to go a bit scrunchy.
For the border, I used 3.25 mm needles, picking up 36 stitches per square with the right side facing - working each side of the blanket seperately. Once I had picked up the stitches, I worked 8 more knit rows, increasing one stitch at the end of each right side row. Cast off.
21st October 2021
We took advantage of the good weather to cycle to Dawlish Warren to take some photos of the finished sunny beach blanketscape (Rhossili Bay was a bit too far for the weekend from Devon!).
I say good weather … the problem was that the sun was in the wrong place and the wind was too strong 🙄.
Just to show that - despite Instagram’s best efforts to make us think otherwise - life does not always run smoothly, and that’s ok.
Photo by a very patient Emilie.
Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK
Colours:
Many Footprints: Stone
Few Footprints: Camel
Large Breaking Waves: Storm Blue
Small Breaking Waves: Petrol
Small Fluffy Clouds: Aster
Large Fluffy Clouds; Lapis
I have made the patterns available for free but they are © Blanketscapes, the patterns are not to be copied or resold. I'm happy for you to make and sell finished blankets using these patterns for charitable, non-commercial, purposes only. Please credit @blanketscapes on Instagram or Facebook for your final creations, I'd love to see what you make. If you enjoy making the free patterns, please consider buying the book to support the creative industry!
Happy knitting!
