Nordica Stripes Breathable Cotton Blanket

The throw that's on the sofa in August and still on it in January.

Most sofa blankets are seasonal whether you meant them to be or not. The chunky wool one is unusable from March, so it goes in a cupboard and the sofa looks bare for six months. The fleece one is worse: warm for twenty minutes and then you're sticky under it, and it holds enough static to snap at you when you get up. This is woven cotton with a horizontal stripe running across it — light enough that you can have it over your legs on a warm evening without regretting it, and dense enough to be a real layer when it's cold.

Breathable is a weave, not a marketing word

What makes a blanket clammy is a fibre that traps moisture against you while trapping heat. Polyester does both, which is why fleece feels great for the first few minutes and unpleasant after twenty. Cotton woven with air in it does the opposite — body heat warms the layer of air held in the cloth, and the moisture from your skin passes out through the fibre instead of condensing. That's the whole reason this works across seasons rather than in one of them. It's also why it's the right blanket for anyone who runs hot, sleeps badly under a duvet, or has a partner who does. The yarn is dyed before weaving rather than the pattern being printed on, so the stripes look the same on both faces and you can throw it over a chair either way round without checking which side is up.

The two colourways, in a room

• Rust Horizon — bands of warm terracotta and burnt orange broken up with natural ground. It has real depth in low light, so it comes into its own on a winter evening with the lamps on. Against oak, walnut or tan leather it looks like it was chosen for the room rather than bought separately.
• Coastal Stripe — cooler blue-grey and off-white bands, closer to a beach towel than to a tartan. It brightens a dark sofa and keeps a white room feeling calm rather than busy. This is the one that works in a bedroom as well as a living room, folded across the foot of the bed.

What You're Getting

• One Nordica Stripes Breathable Cotton Blanket in your chosen Colour
• Woven cotton construction — warm without the clamminess of fleece
• Yarn-dyed stripes, so the pattern reads on both faces and can't peel or crack the way a print can
• Light enough for a warm evening, substantial enough to be a genuine layer in winter
• No static, no pilling into grey bobbles, no picking up the smell of the room
• Works on a sofa, over the foot of a bed, or rolled into a bag for outside
• Cold machine wash on gentle; line dry in shade or tumble dry low
• Warm iron on the reverse if you want it flat; leave it if you like the texture
• Softens with every wash instead of wearing out — no fabric softener needed or wanted

Free tracked shipping to your door. Easy 30-day returns.