applique | Squirrel Picnic

The Sleepyz Blanket is the very first of what I’d like to call my story patterns — patterns that help to tell a story in both the finished piece and its creation. What I found through this project is that the story behind the piece continues to entertain as you’re crocheting. Each step in the pattern contains little prompts that will delightfully remind you of the story.

The story behind the Sleepyz Blanket, “All Tuckered Out,” is a creative take on why we get progressively sleepier as the day goes on. In this picture story, little creatures called Sleepyz climb up on you throughout the day with the intention of driving you back to bed.

The blanket illustrates the picture story in several ways, first by having you crochet several dozen Zs, the mischief-makers in the tale. The next part of the pattern has you crocheting the blanket and sewing on the Zs, which represents how the Sleepyz join forces by weaving themselves into a blanket. Each stitch in the blanket even corresponds to one of the methods employed by the Sleepyz to send you to dreamland. The resulting super soft and cuddly blanket makes you want to curl up and go to sleep.

This Sleepyz Blanket project has been quite a journey. And I’m so thankful to everyone for following along and having patience as I tried out yarns and tinkered with ways to construct the Zs and join them. Thanks so much for all your support and advice! I hope you enjoyed this series and the finished blanket and story.

The Sleepyz Blanket Crochet Pattern

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Now that I’ve crocheted a ton of Zs, it’s time to join them all together. You may remember from the original story that once the Sleepy Zs get a hold of you, they join forces to take you down (nap time!).

The idea is simple enough, but coming up with a method of joining all those Zs took me months to determine. You probably already know my problem… once again, I had to try things the hard way.

When my husband (the Ideas Man) and I came up with the concept for the Sleepyz Blanket, we had very different ideas in mind. While he said that in the construction of the final blanket it should be obvious that it is made out of Zs, I’ve held a totally different opinion: the Zs should go together to create a completely new design (that may not look like Zs at all). So for months I attempted to connect all these Zs with a join-as-you-go method that would only require two or three FOs. I eventually drew up a chart, decided on an arrangement, and started working on joining them, only to decide in the end that it was just too complicated. Also, the holes in between the Zs were far too big… even by crochet standards. I had to admit that the blanket that this would create would be flimsy and shapeless in the end. Here are some of the design concepts that I explored.

Join-as-you-go.

Staggered Zs.

Block layout.

So it was back to the drawing board and time to consult the Ideas Man again. This time he elaborated on his vision of a blanket with Sleepyz sewn onto it like appliqués. “You’ve got to be kidding me?” I said. “I just spent months crocheting all these Zs and now I have to crochet a blanket for them to go on?!” It took me a while to warm up to this idea, but once I tried it out, I was convinced that it would look better than any of my other options.

Here’s the plan for the blanket. I came up with four very easy, but also very interesting double-crochet stitches. I’ll crochet long strips made up of blocks done in each of these stitches. Then I’ll sew the strips together and sew on the Zs as well. I might also add a border of Zs and another border in white. What do you think? Could this work?

Best of all, this approach is still in keeping with the original story: the Sleepyz create a blanket in order to wrap you up and send you to dreamland. I’ve even named each of the double-crochet blocks so that I can write them into the story to show how they work together to make you drowsy.

It won’t be long now before it’s all done! I can’t wait to show you the comic that will illustrate the Sleepyz story too. I hope you’re looking forward to the exciting conclusion of this series as much as I am!