Help with colours for a crochet blanket please

[3boys3dogshelp]

I've just taken up crochet and I love it! I have made a few squares for candy's hugs and a ripple blanket in rainbow colours for a baby.
My boys love the baby blanket and want me to make a big BIG blanket for snuggling under on the sofa. I'm useless with colours and matching them. Living room is neutral/pale grey and lilac. I would love something that will fit in. I have stylecraft special dk but would like to use something chunkier for this project if possible. Must be washable. Any ideas from people with more idea of what they are doing please??!

Stylecraft do a chunky version too' although I don't think it has quite as many colours.

I like the Attic 24 coast colour combination. It's based on Stylecraft Special DK but I think most of the colours are available in the Aran and Chunky.

You can double-strand SSDK. I'm making a blanket for DS by using two strands of SSDK and a larger hook (I am using a 10mm but I'm a very tight hooker, someone with regular tension would probably use an 8mm). The nice thing about using two strands is that you can change colour one strand at a time, which gives a nice mix effect between colour changes. I'm not sure if you shows up very well in the photo, but between each colour change I've done two rows with one strand of each colour.

Brilliant thank you so much. Those coast colours are beautiful although perhaps a little too blue for this time. I can see me spending a lot of money on wool!

Wow TimTam that might be a bit beyond me yet! Looks fab. Forgive the stupid question but how do you use two strands? Is it two balls of the same colour?

There is a thread further down the Arts and Craft page, something like "free colour palettes for Stylecraft Special DK". The lovely Zing has shown loads of options there.

Have a look at QueenOfSheebas' Colour pallette thread lots of lovely well matched pallettes.

Cross posted with you piggy

I love picking colours, if you post up a photo of your sofa, its cushions and the wall behind it I'd really enjoy picking an SSDK palette for you. (I'm a proper crochet geek, I have all the SSDK colours and everything.)

What style of blanket do you want to do? Stripes or joined-up squares, or something else?

It's actually just as easy as crocheting with a single strand, you just treat the two strands as one. I usually use two balls of yarn, although you could use the outside and inside end of one ball if you wanted to. You can use two strands of the same colour or two different colours, which gives a sort of mottled effect. And you just change colour at the end of the row in the usual way, either both colours or just one of them.

I quite like this blanket by Cherry Heart. She lists the SSDK colours that she used, and they are lovely muted colours that would work on a Silver or Parma Violet background, even if you didn't like the pattern itself.

Everyone is so helpful. That thread of colour palettes is amazing. I love 'vintage' and 'heather highlands'. I have a good idea what main colours I like but when I put them together by myself they look a bit flat. Zing adds in extras that would never occur to me to consider.
That blanket you linked to is very pretty colours too, thank you TimTam. I like stripy patterns I think. I've just done a ripple blanket. I need to find something I love before I start this one as I imagine I'll be doing it for a while!

I might have a try of two strands together then- I love stylecraft dk and there are so many more colours.

Tamara from Moogly has just released a lovely variation on the ripple that I want to try at some point.

Ooh that's very nice tribpot.