Brighter days
What is it about colour that makes designer Emma Leith tick?
Emma Leith is a self-taught crochet designer, practising and teaching from her studio just outside Bath. Her first blanket design was for Simply Crochet, and there’s been no looking back! This latest floral spectacle showcases her love of colour in a simply stunning creation.
What inspired your blanket design?
My design brief was to create a blanket using the join-as-you-go method. I already had the central puff stitch idea pinned onto my sketch board waiting for the right project to come along. As I began to play with repeat patterns and shapes, I liked the way circles emerged from the stars once they were joined together. I wanted to give people the opportunity to use the colours in their own way.
How do you envisage it being used?
This is more a decorative piece than a ‘snuggle under’ blanket. It will look fantastic as a statement piece on the spare room bed! Unfortunately, my lovely cat Womble adored the soft squishiness and would seek it out to lie on. As it grew each day he would curl up onto it, making it hard work to crochet as I joined the stars onto it!
What inspired your warm colour palette? Personally, I do tend to steer towards the warmer colours – I really did enjoy the palette available to me with the Scheepjes Stone Washed and River Washed yarn and I felt it was important to include the greens and purples so that the warmer tones had something to work against. The heat of the reds, pinks and oranges together really lift my heart and make me feel happy. As the blanket began to emerge from my hook, it felt like a real summertime piece, where the stars became flowers.
What were you imagining when picking out the cool palette?
As I made up the cooler swatch, I found myself drifting softly into the blues and greens and loving how they worked together. I can’t wait to see how it looks in its entirety, because it has a real feel of cool lily pond about it.
What do you enjoy about designing blankets? Blankets have a timeless quality about them and I try to make each one a thing of beauty. They are perfect for people wishing to hone their crochet skills, especially the more ambitious CALs! There’s something for everyone with blankets – sometimes it’s fun to keep it really simple and just enjoy the restful repetition of crocheting, letting the yarn colours do all the work.