New Wool and Alpaca Blankets

My last two projects used a similar warp design for seven wool blankets each. The first set of blankets has wide stripes of greens and blue, the other has dark earth tones - near-black, dark brown and reddy brown, and the wide stripes are separated by light, narrow ones. The first set of blankets looked really nice and the design was so versatile for individual blankets that I decided to carry it over to the next project and save designing from scratch.

After weaving one blanket in the first set with grey and cream alpaca, I decided to weave the same pattern in the next project so that the two blankets would be a set.

The alpaca is machine-spun, gorgeous stuff from Exotic Fibres in Alberta. I've been hoarding it a bit because it's so precious, but I should be using it and trusting I can always get more. This alpaca is soft, lightweight and perfectly spun for blanket weft. I wove wide stripes of grey in diamonds and chevrons, intersected with narrow cream alpaca.

My idea of weaving two blankets as a set was a good one.  However, Plan "B" was that they look fine together but somehow the grey stripes came out narrower in the second blanket. This was a bit of a disappointment, but there's only one person to blame for that!

Here are the two blankets:

SH147 | Wool and alpaca | 178 cm x 137 cm (70" x 54") | Sold

SH154 | Wool and alpaca | 160 cm x 137 cm (63" x 54") | Sold

The blanket set of two wool and alpaca blankets 

The two blankets do look very well together as if they were designed that way - and they were. Next time I will be a little more careful when I do this. I do have to point out that they are almost the widest possible, because the alpaca barely shrank in the first washing before weaving. Both blankets are 137 cm (54") wide.

These two wool and alpaca blankets are beautiful, soft and warm with a classy look and feeling from the deluxe alpaca. The second one sold in December for a Christmas gift, but SH145 is still available in Ottawa. Let me know if you're interested.