Multiple Textures, One Blanket | The Making of the Savannah Blanket

The Savannah Blanket marks a new milestone for Mungo—a first-of-its-kind multi-texture blanket that blends varying weave constructions into a striking patchwork of pattern and texture. We spoke to our designer, Lenore, about the prototyping, process and palette behind this innovative new creation.

Where did the idea for the Savannah Blanket come from?

The concept for the Savannah Blanket started a while ago, with the idea to create a blanket with multiple weave constructions. We wanted to achieve that in a way that gave texture and dimension, and that added a soft feel.

Initially, we were limited by our old looms because they didn’t have enough shafts – the frames that lift and lower groups of warp threads to allow the weft to go through. The number of shafts determines the complexity of the patterns, and the more shafts, the greater the design possibilities.

The idea really came together with the arrival of our newest looms in mind. In June we received four state-of-the-art Dornier looms, custom-built for us in Lindau, Germany.

Talk us through the early design phase.

I started sampling on our Saurer loom, which has 16 shafts, and so allows for a bit more design flexibility than our 12-shaft Dornier machines. The early tests didn’t come out right, and it took quite a lot of iterating.

What kinds of issues did you need to overcome?

It was quite a process, because each pattern has its own characteristics, and there’s a major difference between the woven cloth that comes off the loom (we call this ‘loomstate’), and once it comes back from a first wash. After washing, the textile shrinks – bulking up and changing its shape. Because of the different textures, some sections shrunk and others didn’t, creating alternating areas of cockled and smooth cloth. We had to find a way to get one pattern to flow into the next.

The Savannah Blanket also uses a cotton and linen ‘slub yarn’, where the thickness varies. This adds to the blanket’s texture, but also needed to be taken into consideration.

How do the new Dornier machines open up creative possibilities?

We’ve always had to be more experimental with our designs because our older looms have limited capabilities. Pattern and play needs to come through weave constructions and stripe designs. For me, that’s always been the most exciting part – working within those limitations and pushing your creativity.

Our new Dornier looms have 24 shafts, which doubles our creative possibilities. They also allow us to directly transfer the designs onto the looms, whereas with our older machines we hand-punch the pattern cards. This can be a very time-consuming process; in the early sampling of the Savannah Blanket, it took two days to punch the card for the Saurer loom. So these new machines streamline our processing significantly. Changes can be made immediately, and so there’s a lot of more flexibility and efficiency.

What inspired the palette of the Savannah Blanket?

If you go to the Drakensberg in the dry season, there are those yellows and browns and dry grasses. The Grasslands colourways speaks of that. And then its antithesis, the rainy season – that’s Monsoon. So it’s sort of that blend of rocks and sand that you might see whilst hiking; an imitation of nature and its textures.

What are your thoughts on the overall effect?

This was a new concept for us – making a blanket with multiple textures, as usually our textiles only have a single weave. The effect is quite beautiful and vivid, like an artwork. I think it’s really exciting. It’s exciting to see how we can move our designs into a whole new dimension. New looms, new design possibilities… Watch this space.