Heart Throb Blanket Part 3

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.