Strawberry Thief Blanket by Debbie Bliss & Chloé Elizabeth Birch in Morris DK - Downloadable PDF

Strawberry Thief Blanket Knitting Pattern by Debbie Bliss & Chloé Elizabeth Birch in Morris DK

The Strawberry Thief Blanket is a stunning, square knitted throw designed by Debbie Bliss and Chloé Elizabeth Birch, worked in West Yorkshire Spinners Morris DK yarn. Inspired by the iconic William Morris textile tradition, this advanced-level knitting pattern produces a richly coloured, intricately patterned blanket measuring 81 cm × 81 cm (32 × 32 inches). It is available as a downloadable PDF, making it instantly accessible for knitters eager to begin this impressive project.

What Is Being Made

This pattern creates a square decorative blanket or throw, worked flat in rows. The finished piece is a bold, colourwork-rich textile that draws on the heritage of the Morris & Co. aesthetic, making it as much a piece of decorative art as a functional home accessory. At 81 × 81 cm, it is a generous lap blanket or display throw suitable for draping over furniture or gifting as a heirloom-quality handmade item.

Techniques Used

This is an advanced-level pattern that incorporates several sophisticated knitting techniques, making it best suited to experienced knitters comfortable with colourwork and chart reading. The key techniques include:

• Fair Isle stranding: When working with two or three colours simultaneously, unused colours are stranded loosely across the wrong side of the fabric. Keeping floats loose is essential to maintaining the correct tension and preventing puckering across the colourwork sections.
• Intarsia: Where stranding becomes impractical — particularly across wider sections of a single colour — a separate ball of yarn is used for each colour area. Yarns are twisted around one another at colour joins on the wrong side to link sections and prevent holes forming in the fabric.
• Swiss darning (duplicate stitch): This embroidery-like technique is used in parts of the pattern to add fine colour detail on top of the knitted fabric after knitting is complete, without requiring additional strands to be carried during knitting.
• Working from a chart: All colourwork is directed via a knitting chart. Right-side rows are read from right to left and wrong-side rows are read from left to right, following standard chart-reading convention for flat knitting.
• Tension square: The pattern strongly emphasises swatching before beginning, as achieving the correct tension is essential to reaching the stated finished dimensions and producing the correct fabric drape and density.

Stitches Used

• Stocking stitch (st-st): The foundation stitch of the blanket, formed by knitting right-side rows and purling wrong-side rows. The colourwork is worked across a stocking stitch ground.
• Knit (K) and Purl (P) stitches form the structural basis of the entire fabric.
• Colourwork stitches: Worked in stocking stitch with multiple colours as directed by the chart, using Fair Isle and intarsia methods as appropriate to the design.

Materials: Yarn and Needles

The pattern is written specifically for West Yorkshire Spinners Morris DK, a 100% wool DK-weight yarn available in 50g balls, each yielding approximately 112 metres (122 yards). The palette used in this blanket draws on a rich, nature-inspired colour range. The specific shades and quantities required are:

• Colour A – Strawberry (shade 1293): 6 × 50g balls
• Colour B – Strawberry (shade 1293): 3 × 50g balls (as listed separately in the pattern's yarn breakdown)
• Colour E – Blackthorn (shade 1276): 1 × 50g ball
• Colour F – Rose (shade 1292): 1 × 50g ball
• Colour C – Daisy (shade 1275): 1 × 50g ball
• Colour G – Marigold (shade