The Story Behind the Heart Throb Baby Blanket Part 3

Don't forget to Like this Pattern on Ravelry

The response to this free crochet blanket pattern (my Heart Throb Blanket) has been incredible! It's one of the most popular patterns available on the Red Heart Website that was released this month. I am so happy that you like it!

Did you see Part 1 or Part 2 of the story?

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Part 3

I have the image. I've made the image into a graph. Now, I have to select the colors and send them to my contractor—the amazingly talented Jenni Castaneda.

Contract Crocheter Extraordinaire!

I work very closely with my contractors and rely on them a LOT! They are vital to my business and are what makes my business work. I tell them, YOU are my eyes on a project! You will find out first if something just doesn't look right or if maybe doing something a little different would be better. I trust their opinion, and all too often, I think they are in some sort of a mind meld with me as they can totally read my mind 😉

The MVP or #1 Minion on my team is Jenni Castaneda. She and I have worked together from the very beginning. Seriously, I was the one who taught Jenni how to crochet back in 2005. Yes, I created my own minion from the start. Because of that, Jenni totally understands me, what I want, and how I want it done.

There have been times when I've given her a McDonald's napkin with a sketch and a few hand-drawn crochet symbols on it and had her make a sweater. And she did!!! Needless to say, she is beyond valuable to me. So, of course, she was the one I chose to make this Heart Throb blanket.

The Perfect Yarn

As the national spokesperson for Red Heart Yarns, I obviously wanted to use their yarn for this project (and yarn for many other projects in the works). With the many color choices under Super Saver, I knew that was the right choice for this project. I sent Jenni many shades of pink, white, and cream so she could choose which was the perfect fit, but there was only one choice for the little heart inside the heart: it had to be RED!

 

Heart Throb Blanket – Work In Progress

Once she had the yarn and the graph, I told Jenni to use the popular C2C technique of using the crosshatch, or boxes, and half double crochets, to begin reading the graph diagonally starting at the bottom right-hand corner and change colors when indicated for that square. That was it. That was her Heart Throb pattern. That's all she had to go on, and OMG…did she do a fantastic job!!!

Here are the progress pictures I got along the way.

Final Product – The Heart Throb Blanket Pattern!

Well, you know there was a happy ending to this beautiful design. Jenni finished it in time for the photo shoot in December, and you can see the fun pictures of the Heart Throb Blanket published by Red Heart Yarns here.

But that's not all! Red Heart surprised me by publishing all the patterns I created for them in my own PDF format! Seriously, how cool is _that_?!? See my logo at the top, directly under Red Heart? And do you see my face on the second page? OMG…I'm totally geeking out!

Anyway, I hope you like this blanket and end up making one for yourself or a loved one in your life. I know I'm hooked on this type of afghan, and you can bet that I'll be doing more like this one in the future 🙂

xoxo

Marly Bird

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a video tutorial for the Heart Throb Blanket?

Oh, so many of you have asked about a YouTube tutorial! While I don't have one specifically for this blanket right now, I appreciate you letting me know you'd love to see it. Keep an eye out, you never know what might come next!

How did you choose the colors for the blanket?

Honestly… picking colors is one of my favorite parts! For this blanket, I knew Red Heart Super Saver would be perfect with all its shades. I sent my contractor, Jenni, tons of pinks, whites, and creams… but the heart *had* to be bright red, of course!

Can you tell me more about Jenni, your contractor?

Yes! Jenni Castaneda is my MVP, my #1 Minion! I actually taught her how to crochet way back in 2005. She's so incredibly talented and gets exactly what I'm envisioning… sometimes it feels like we're mind-melding!

How do I know when to change colors when using the C2C technique?

So here's the thing… the easiest way to know when to change colors is to follow the graph! I had Jenni work diagonally from the bottom right-hand corner and just change colors where the graph indicated. It's like reading a map for your crochet!

Where can I get the Heart Throb Blanket pattern in a PDF?

Great question! You can now get the pattern available as an ad-free PDF… check out The Pattern Shop for all the details! It's so exciting to have it all in one place.

The story behind the Heart Throb Baby Blanket Part 2

Don't forget to Like this Pattern on Ravelry

The response on this free crochet blanket pattern has been incredible. It is one of the most popular patterns available on the Red Heart Website that was released this month. I am so happy that you like it!

Did you see Part 1 of the story?

Part 2

So here I am, absolutely in LOVE with the idea of taking an image, pixelating it, and making it into a crocheted blanket. All because of this beautiful blanket made by Repeat Crafter Me

And that was when the planning began….

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Pinterest

Knowing that I often bite off more than I can chew, I consciously chose to do only one image and make it big enough to be a blanket rather than several squares with a variety of images. Once I knew that and that I wanted to make it around a holiday theme, I went to Pinterest to search for Valentine related images.

You can see in my pinterest board dedicated to this task that I pinned many different designs and some are even cross-stitch patterns. I was looking for images that didn't have so much detail that I would need a HUGE number of pixels to make it legible. And I was looking for images that I could purchase…since I was going to use it for a design.

Once I had some good ideas from Pinterest, I went to one of my favorite sites to purchase images, Deposit Images.

Image Selection

Searching on Deposit Images can be an all day affair. Not because it is a hard site but because there are so many beautiful images available and you want to choose the right one for the job! Here are some of the ones I tried to choose from:

I found the one I thought was perfect and purchased the vector file. At first, I bought the one with the standard license to see if the image would even be a good fit for my needs. When I knew it was good, then I purchased the extended license to make sure that my image, although pixelated and a small part of the big image, was being used legally for commercial use.

A Standard License is the default type of license. It substantially covers all options of usage (i.e. advertising, web sites, printed materials, catalogues, booklets, packing, professional documents, presentations, movies, video staff, etc.) provided they are not intended for resale.
An Extended License allows commercial use of files in materials for sale or commercial distribution (post-cards, posters, t-shirts, website templates, printed materials, sale of goods created with use of the image, etc.).

Image to Graph/Pixels

Now that I had my image I wanted to use, I had to get it put into pixels. Mikey, of the Crochet Crowd, told me about a free site that could graph an image for me called Stitchboard.com. I used it but I had a hard time getting the stitches to look right. I needed to use a program that would allow me to tweak the image. Yes, there is a lot of tweaking that goes on to make sure the lines look right, the heart looks right, and making sure the actual image looks like it is supposed to look like!

Here is my first attempt at the graph with the free site:

I love that it includes the color key and the stitch and row numbers but, you can see where the lines don't look right and the colors are a bit muddled. It just didn't fit the bill for my needs. So, I used a program that I have been a fan of for years called Stitch Painter 3. 

I took the image purchased and had it put into a graph using Stitch Painter and I was then able to tweak the lines and colors just like I wanted. Here was my final image (without the watermark)…the one that my contract crocheter and #1 Minion, Jenni Castaneda, used to make the actual blanket.

There is more to the story…just a click away!

Frequently Asked Questions

Where did you get the idea for the Heart Throb Baby Blanket?

So here's the thing… I was totally inspired by a beautiful pixelated blanket made by Repeat Crafter Me! I just fell in love with the idea of turning an image into a crocheted blanket, and that's how the planning for this one began.

How did you choose the image for the blanket?

Honestly… I went to Pinterest first to find some Valentine-themed images that weren't too detailed. I needed something that would translate well into pixels without needing a zillion of them! Then, I purchased a vector file from Deposit Images, making sure to get the extended license so I could use it legally for my design.

What software did you use to turn the image into a graph?

Yes! I tried a free site called Stitchboard.com, but I had a hard time getting the stitches to look just right. In the end, I used a program I've loved for years called Stitch Painter 3. It allowed me to tweak the lines and colors perfectly so the graph looked exactly how I wanted it.

I'm having trouble with rows 55-61 in the pattern… what's up?

Oh dear… it sounds like a few folks had a bit of a tangle with those rows! The important fix seems to be swapping the instructions for Row 55 and Row 56. Make sure to double-check that part, and you should be good to go!

Can I see other people's finished blankets?

While this page doesn't have a gallery of finished blankets, people sometimes share their projects in the comments! You can also check out Ravelry to see what others have made with the pattern. It's always so inspiring to see everyone's creations!