The Nephele Blanket: A Crochet Baby Blanket Pattern with Intarsia Clouds
There is a particular pleasure in a design that does exactly what its motif suggests. The Nephele Blanket has a ring of clouds worked in front post stitches that genuinely look and feel cloud-like – rounded, raised, softer in texture than the fabric around them. That was the point.
The pattern is available on Etsy and Ravelry.
Where the Idea Came From
Nephele began as a variation on my Cara Blanket – a square baby blanket worked in the round, with a ring of tapestry crochet hearts. I wanted to design something in the same spirit, but with clouds instead of hearts.
Once I started thinking about clouds, the design question became obvious: flat stitches were not going to cut it. The whole point of a cloud is its puffiness, and I wanted the stitch choice to reflect that. Front post double crochet stitches wrap around the post of the stitch below rather than working into the top loops, which pulls them forward and creates a raised, rounded texture. For clouds, it turned out to be exactly the right call.
The name comes from the Greek cloud nymph – a small detail, but it felt right for a baby blanket built around the sky.
What the Blanket Looks Like
Nephele is a square blanket, worked in the round from a central magic ring outward. A ring of intarsia clouds float around the blanket, each one created in white yarn and using front post stitches that give them a raised, textured surface. The main body is worked in a solid background colour – I used a soft blue that reads as sky, though testers have made beautiful versions in a wide range of other colours. There is no rule that says clouds need a blue sky behind them.
The border continues in the round, worked in front and back post stitches to create a neat ribbed finish that frames the whole design.
Finished size: 90 cm x 90 cm (approximately 35 x 35 inches) – a comfortable size for a baby blanket or a small lapghan.
Working with Intarsia
The clouds are worked in intarsia rather than tapestry crochet which I used for the hearts in the Cara Blanket, and it’s worth understanding why, because it affects how you manage the yarn.
In tapestry crochet, non-working colours are carried inside the stitches as you work, which works well when colour changes happen relatively frequently. However, in the Nephele Blanket, the gaps between clouds are longer stretches of background colour, which means carrying the contrast yarn for a significant distance. Over a longer float, there is a greater risk of the carried yarn showing through from behind if you crochet over it with every stitch as in tapestry crochet. Intarsia avoids this by either using a separate length of yarn for each colour section, with no carrying between sections, or by floating the yarn behind your work between clouds and crocheting over it every few stitches.
The intarsia technique used here is straightforward. If you are new to it, this introduction to intarsia crochet is a good place to start before you begin.
Pattern Details
What’s included: Full written pattern and notes. A link to a magic ring tutorial is included in the pattern for the starting technique.
Yarn: Aran weight. I used Hobbii Friends Wool (100% wool, 100 m / 109 yards per 50 g ball). You could substitute any aran weight yarn – wool, acrylic, or alpaca all work well.
Yarn quantities:
- 9 balls of Dark Denim (81) — 900 m / 981 yards
- 5 balls of White (01) — 500 m / 545 yards
Hook size: 4.5 mm
Gauge: 15 stitches and 8 rows over 10 cm in treble crochet (UK) / double crochet (US), worked in the round
Finished size: 90 cm x 90 cm (approx. 35 x 35 inches)
Construction: Worked in the round throughout, including the ribbed border
Skill level: Beginner with experience of basic stitches, or intermediate
Terminology: Both UK and US crochet terms provided
Yarn and Colour Choices
I made my Nephele in Dark Denim and White – the sky-and-cloud combination that gave the design its name – but this is a pattern where you could go in almost any direction with colour. Several of my testers chose quite different main colours, and the clouds read just as well against other backgrounds.
The main practical consideration is contrast. The cloud texture relies on front post stitches to create its raised effect, but you also want the colour change to make the clouds visible. A strong tonal difference between background and cloud colour will help both elements do their job.
Aran weight is a good choice for this design. It gives the front post stitches enough body to sit forward convincingly, and the finished blanket has a pleasingly substantial feel without being too heavy for a baby blanket. A softer fibre – wool, alpaca, or a wool-acrylic blend – will make the most of the textured stitches.
Get the Pattern
The Nephele Blanket pattern is available on Etsy and Ravelry.
New to These Techniques?
The pattern uses a magic ring start, front and back post stitches, and simple intarsia. All are explained within the pattern itself. If you’d like a little more background before you begin, these resources may help:
Explore More
For more blanket patterns and crochet resources, the Crochet Blanket Resource Hub is a good place to browse.
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About the Author
Catherine is a crochet designer and teacher based in Surrey, UK, specialising in crochet blankets with a particular love of tapestry crochet and colourwork. Her designs have been published in crochet magazines including Crochet Now and Simply Crochet, and she is a contributor to the book 100 Crochet Tiles. She has designed patterns in collaboration with Sirdar and WeCrochet. You can find her patterns on Etsy and Ravelry, and her tutorials on YouTube.
