A Scrap Blanket

During COVID, I have been cleaning out. I had some left over yarn from my crocheted blanket so decided to add to some knitted squares that I had started some years ago. My delema was to see how big it would get. I just kept knitting until I had had enough, then put a border around it. 

It is big enough for a knee rug, and has now been claimed by a member of the family.

It has been made with scraps. Some is 8ply 100% wool, most is acrylic, and there is one textured yarn in there that has thrown everything out. 

Another UFO done and dusted, and all my left over yarn is now bagged for charity.

A New Blanket

Mmmmm.... its been a while. What more can I say.

This blanket got started some seven or eight years ago, then put away when I was going away, and promptly forgotten about. Well....... other things took over.

At the time when I started it, I had no idea what it would be or how far I would go, I just started making Granny Squares. Along the way I made a decision to make some big squares, and some little squares, and to alternate them. I tried to crochet them together, but thought that gave to hard a ridge, and it was at this stage it got put away.

When I pulled it out recently, I pulled what squares I had joined together undone, and then sewed them together instead. This is what I ended up with.

The blanket grew from there, I just kept adding to it. I did a border, and it was fine. It was a good size as a throw rug for the lounge, and I still had yarn left. I had enough to repeat another border, and thought I had enough to do another row  of small squares in between. I worked it out I would need 60 of them, so just stared making squares again. If I could get 60, good stuff. If not, I would join what I could get into something else.

Well, I got my sixty squares, added them to my blanket, then did the second border. It is way plenty big enough for two people to snuggle under, or as a spare blanket for on top of a bed. It's also another UFO done and dusted.

A Crocheted Blanket

Another finish, a crocheted blanket.

This blanket started on an impulse buy. I spotted some yarn cakes at Lincraft and loved the colours. I'd heard so much about yarn cakes, so I bought three of the same colour way on impulse to give them a try.

What to make? How far would my three cakes take me? I had no idea, so I just started crocheting squares. I believe now the cake yarns are supposed to be self striping. Just like me to be different, instead  I got miss matched squares.

I tried pressing the squares to get them to sit better. The smell produced was one that disagreed with me. It was at this stage that I decided to give it away.

I continued to make squares, as many as my cakes would let me. When I had enough for a blanket, I sewed them together. I was hoping I would have enough left to do a border. In case I didn't, I went looking in my stash and found a navy acrylic that I could use at a pinch. The cakes were equal to a 10 ply, while the navy was an 8 ply. Not sure how it was going to work but I would give it a try.

I was also concerned that the navy may have been too dark, so I started with a row of chains and double crochets. My idea was that the chains would be covered in a row of trebles  in the cake yarn on the next row of the border, and so just leave me with little spots of navy. I was hoping that I could get just one colour of the cake yarn to go all the way around the blanket for this part of the border, but no. Continuing in the style of cakes, I have a colour change. Not to worry, I just did another row of navy.

This would be my final row, so I decided to do a row of picots. I felt a shell edge would be too solid, and in the navy would be too much. The picots would add an interesting edge without too much navy.

So the blanket has now been blocked, and looks better, though the smell still disagrees with me. So I have asked a friend of mine who does a lot of work for charity if she would like it. So my little blanket will go to a charity somewhere, hopefully to be loved by someone. I am sure it will. I have had my experience with cake yarn now and I think that will do me, and I can now go back to my beloved Bendigo wool.

A Stash Buster Baby Blanket

I've done a few baby blankets now, but this one is the first one that I have not used a pattern for. It is also the first time that I have combined knitting and crochet together.

It began when I heard through the family grapevine that one of the nieces was trying to have a baby. I thought I could make a blanket for her now, and  it would be ready if and when this baby arrived.

I was thinking that I could order some more wool through Bendigo Woollen Mills, then remembered I had some in my stash that I had purchased many years ago. It was acrylic, not my favourite to work with.

At the time that I purchased the yarn, another lady I know had just had her first daughter and I wanted to make her something small, so I only purchased a few balls of the pink and the white yarn. I stared on a little matinee jacket, but felt the yarn was not suitable for a newborn's skin , and I changed my mind to make a blanket instead. Silly me, of course a blanket was going to take way more time and way more yarn, so back to the shop I went to purchase more. As this stage, the store was only selling whole packets of yarn ( they we going to close down so I found out later), so ended up with ten extra balls of pink and ten extra balls of white. Mmmm......... a lot of yarn, but I knew it would all get used one day.

Needless to say the original purpose of the yarn didn't happen, it ended up a blanket that I gave to a family member when she had her daughter. That blanket can be seen here. Even after completing a blanket, I still had heaps of yarn left, and thought that if I combined the two colours together I could get another blanket for this hoped for baby.

So then I started searching the internet for ideas, and found one that had a border of granny squares .  It got me thinking, and I started making granny squares. Then I had to work out the center, it had to fit, so some maths was involved that didn't really work out so I added in more granny squares to compensate. I pondered over what pattern to put in the center, and decided to use just plain old moss stitch. It would give a texture without distracting from the granny squares, and it wouldn't curl at the edges and make life difficult. Then I added another  border in pink, also in moss stitch.

OK, so the blanket is finished. The original family member that I made it for is still not pregnant ( as far as I know), then when she does conceive, it may even be a boy. So what do I do with this blanket? At the moment it is packed away ready for the first baby girl that comes along. There are at least two babies due within the extended family in 2018, but I have planned other projects for those two. We will see, it may even go to charity yet.

A Baby Blanket UFO

There is nothing like a new baby in the family to spur on the finish of a UFO. This little baby blanket started life quite some years ago as a little baby matinee jacket. At the time it was earmaked for another little girl, but once I started it I felt that I wouldn't like the yarn up against a new born baby's skin, it wasn't soft enough. So I pulled it all undone & started this blanket instead. It is simple chains & blocks of trebles & I very soon got bored with it. Consequently it soon got put aside for more interesting things & so became a UFO. Then last Monday I got an early morning call to say a member of family had given birth to a little girl. Mmm..... time to pull it out & finish it. It was only about 1/3 done, so there was still lots to do, but I had it completely finished in three days & handed over to the proud parents. Congratulations go out to S & A on the birth of their beautiful daughter & I hope they find the blanket useful.