Top Left:
2009 Arabian Nights
Top:
2014 Back to the Country
Bottom Left:
2010 Beneath The Sea
Bottom:
2017 Retrospective
Each year the design for the Mystery Blanket is
sold with a limited membership, with the patterns
made available only to the members that join. The
concept of the Mystery Blanket Club is very simple.
Members receive the knitting kit in two instalments
which include all the yarn and embellishments
needed for the whole project. They then receive
the patterns in ten monthly instalments, beginning
in February and finishing in November. The theme
of the project is kept a secret, only to be discovered
as the squares are completed and the blanket takes
shape. Debbie writes a monthly blog on her website
which keeps the members up to date with all the
latest news, advice and knitting tips for the project.
For Debbie’s 2019 Mystery Blanket she is using
some of her all-time favourite Rowan yarns
including Kid Classic, Felted Tweed, Softyak, Alpaca
Classic, Alpaca Soft, Kidsilk Haze, Baby Merino Silk
DK and a touch of sparkly Anchor Metallic thread.
And although she never likes to give away any clues
about the project, she has revealed a little bit about
the project for 2019:
“The colour palette combines soft gentle shades
of grey, blue and violet with brilliant white and a
generous sprinkling of Debbie Abrahams sparkling
glass beads. And if you like interesting stitch
structures and fairisle then you are in for a treat
8
as there are lots of lovely patterns to knit up in
this blanket that use these techniques. This year’s
Mystery Blanket design was very busy and most
of the squares were quite a challenge – even for
the experienced knitter. So for the 2019 design I
have focused on creating stitch patterns which are
interesting to knit but easy to learn, so your knitting
experience will still be educational but hopefully
very enjoyable too! And if you are not too keen on
the fairisle technique then you can choose to opt
out of these squares and knit something a bit easier
with my Option Two patterns.”
The process of creating the design for each of
Debbie’s Mystery Blankets is a lengthy one, usually
taking from six to eight months to complete each
one of her blanket designs. Her starting point is
a source of inspiration, from which she takes all
of her ideas for colour, texture and pattern. After
creating a colour palette she then works on a colour
layout to determine roughly where the colours are
going to be used in the forty-nine squares of the
blanket. Then a rough sketch is drafted up of the
whole design so that she has a plan to work to for
the placement of pattern and texture. When all of
this prep work has been done, it is only then that
Debbie picks up the knitting needles and starts to
knit samples of each square in the blanket. And this
can be a lengthy process in itself, with many of the
ROWAN