Mixed stripey blanket beginnings...wanna join in?

Well, I have finally got around to starting my next mixed-stitch-stripey blanket, I have been procrastinating a lot regarding this blanket.  

However, on our last trip to Melbourne I bought this book, and there are so many fantastic stitch patterns in here that I could put it off no longer!  There were many patterns with similar effects to what I was looking for in my experimenting, so why reinvent the wheel?  I will just use the similar ones in here I think. 

These are a few I like and think I could incorporate into my blanket, along with some old favourites, they might not all make the cut but it is good to have lots of options in a blanket like this!

What do you think?  Aren't they lovely! I do like nice solid looking patterns, I actually think the Interlocking Diamonds would be gorgeous for a blanket all on it's own! Maybe next project there!

Soooo......here is my beginning, 3 rows of hdc (htr) in blue,watermelon and green.  

Choosing the colours for this blanket has been quite a challenge, do I go for a different look or choose old favourites?  Lots of different colours or a limited palette?  In the end I've decided to go with the flow and see what takes my fancy as I get to each new stitch pattern.  It's going to be fun!

Definitely going to be one interesting blanket!

If anyone would like to crochet along with me on the own mixed-stitch-stripey blanket, feel free, I'd love to see what you come up with!  I am hoping to start a page dedicated to this blankets progress with the patterns and mini tutorials on it so you can see what I am doing.  But feel free to do your own thing, choose what ever stitches you like and lets create a unique blanket together!

I am using 8 ply wool (DK I think equivalent) with a 3.5 mm hook, but use what ever hook you feel comfortable with, I want a nice firm tight stitch, but you may prefer a looser fabric.

To begin with I chained 390ish stitches ( I kind of lost count and then kept loosing count when I went back to check)  because I want a big blanket for our bed, but you can chain as many as you like to suit your own wants.  Because of all the different stitch patterns, there will probably be a bit of adjusting of each row, depending on which pattern is being used; they all have various stitch repeats, if you get what I mean.  As long as we keep the same number of stitches in each row, we should end up with a fairly straight sided piece.  There is a bit of improvising inthids project, so please bear with me!

So the first few rows are of hdcs (htr), just to give us a nice firm base to start with,  I am going to do a couple more before moving on to a different pattern.

Stay tuned, I will try and update this blanket whenever I have made a pattern change, but that's enough to get us started!   

Have a great day!