Recently I decided it was time to clean out my yarn stash. While some crocheters/knitters may save every bit of their scrap yarn, after a while I feel the need to purge it. Often, it’s not enough yarn to do anything with. I have thought about making a yarn ball wreath – I made one years ago for Christmas – but I just haven’t gotten around to it. I have a laundry list of yarn projects I want to make, and it just keeps getting longer. While going through my yarn I noticed that I had quite a bit of Bernat Blanket Yarn leftover from numerous projects in an array of colors. Since it was so much, I thought to myself that there had to be something I could make with it. Of course, the best thing was a blanket. It is called Blanket Yarn after all.
At first, I wasn’t sure what pattern I wanted to use. I thought maybe doing a simple pattern and using each color haphazardly until it ran out and then moving on to the next color. But when I envisioned that it didn’t look very aesthetically pleasing. So, I decided the best way to use up the yarn and to make a somewhat cohesive looking blanket would be to make a bunch of granny squares and then stitch them together. Which I was a bit apprehensive about because I am like most crocheters… weaving in ends is my least favorite task when it comes to crocheting and there would be a lot of ends to weave in with this pattern. Which could have meant that this project could have sat for quite some time once the squares were done. Thankfully, I am trying to be more proactive when it comes to weaving in ends, so it doesn’t seem like such a daunting task at the end of my project. I’ve started to weave as I go. Which has been helpful and has made some of my recent projects go a little quicker.
Initially I thought I would make some of the granny squares multicolor, but after making a few of them and laying them out with the solid color ones I made I didn’t like how it looked. So I decided to stick with making all the squares a solid color.
Which meant that I did have to buy a few skeins of yarn to make sure I had enough yarn to make all of the squares I would need. Thankfully (but unfortunately) I was able to get them at JoAnn’s during their going out of business sale at a discount. This also meant that it was easier for me to create a somewhat pattern with the squares.
So, once all my squares were done (and the ends weaved in) I began to lay them out to figure out the best position for each of them.
Once I was happy with the placement of all the squares, it was time to sew them together to form the rows and then sew all the rows together to finish the blanket. One thing I noticed about the yarn while making the squares was that even though they were all the same weight (Super Bulky) the texture was a bit different for some of the colors. Some of the yarn I’ve had for over 5 years, and I am thinking that over the years the manufacturer has made the yarn a bit smoother/silkier. Which kind of left the border of my blanket looking a little wonky and unfinished. So, after all the squares were sewn together, I decided to add a simple border in a contrasting color. I was very happy with the final product.
Bead Yarn & Spatula 