Remember when I made 2012 new year goals and I decided that I wanted to knit another blanket? Well this weekend I was bit by the inspiration bug. I started a blanket, although it isn’t knit, its crochet! I read the most recent blog post on the Kelbourne Woolens site and it inspired me to crochet a blanket. But I decided to do something a little different, I am using all leftover lace, fingering, and sport weight yarns. I am able to use all those gauges by going all the way up to a size E crochet hook. I double the lace weight and some of my squares are more dense than others, but I am loving every second of it.
I didn’t want to use all my leftover yarns, just ones that fit the color palate I had in mind. I knew I wanted to use yellow, greys, browns, and certain shades of blue. I think I will have to supplement my leftovers with some other yarns. I have Koigu on the brain. I can’t believe I don’t have any left over Koigu in the colors for my blanket! Don’t worry…. I’ll get some this week. Here is a picture of my yarns I have so far and my color palate:
Up at the top we have Quine & Co Tern then from top left we have: Kollage Hope, Debbie Bliss Rialto 4ply, Louet Gems Sport, Madelinetosh Prairie, Louet Gems Sport, Swans Island Fingering. Bottom from left to right: Madelinetosh Sock, Malabrigo Sock, Habu Textiles Tsumugi Silk, Debbie Bliss Rialto 4ply, Pagewood Farm Glacier Bay, Shalimar Yarns Zoe Sock.
I am thinking about adding a deep dark purple… but I just can’t decide. I think my yellow (which I love) is a little out there, so I don’t know if the purple might be out of place or not, I’ll see where the color palate takes me. I will definitely be adding more shades of tan, beige, white, brown, grey and taupe…. as for more colors I’m on the fence.
I started off by making a few single colored squares for less finishing work, here is one in the Habu Textiles Tsumugi Silk doubled.
About three squares in I lost interest in the single colored squares and graduated to three colored squares. In this one I used Madelinetosh Prairie doubled for the first tier in the center, Louet Gems Sport for the second tier, and Kollage Hope for the third outer tier. Yes, there are more ends to weave in, but it’s totally worth it and looks fantastic. Plus it’s way more fun!
In this square I used Swan’s Island Fingering doubled for the first center square, then for the second square I held the Swan’s Island Fingering with the Malabrigo Sock, and for the third outer square I used Malabrigo Sock doubled. This was definitely a fun square to make.
I think the thing that is most fun for me about this project is since most of the yarns are leftovers they remind me of the projects I used them for in the past. So fun! Over the next few months or so I will work on these squares on the days I can’t think about what I am doing. Hopefully by the time fall comes around I will have a new blanket to crawl under. I will definitely post pictures as I make progress and finish my blanket. So far I have 22 traditional three tiered granny squares that I made yesterday and two mini single tiered granny squares that have yet to find a place in this project, but they are just too cute to add onto.
I hope this post has given you a bit of inspiration to start a blanket of your own. Use leftovers… you will find that you tend to use a lot of the same colors. For a good basic granny square tutorial, visit The Purl Bee blog here. If you are having a hard time choosing a color palate a site I have always found to be inspirational is the Color Collective Blog. Please feel free to share your pictures of yarn choices and color combos here! Happy crocheting!