Sunday, January 23, 2011

Easy Scrap Blanket Directions





My scraps of sock yarn were building up and I wanted to make something... really anything, but wasn't sure what to do. It had to be simple and not too much thinking. I wanted a mindless project.

Looking through some old knitting and crochet books from my husband's grandma, I found some basic square instructions and just ran with it.

I didn't invent this stitch - It's probably as old as knitting with a circular needle began. Almost anyone who knits and sees this blanket asks me how I did it. So, here are my directions.

I started with 5 dpns and when it got too big for that, I switched to a long circular. Eventually it was so big, I used 2 circulars. Part of the beauty of this project is that you can make it as big or little as you wish. You can use any yarn you like and any size needle.

This example is done with various sock yarns (all superwash, so I could wash it). I'd recommend making sure they are all like yarns, but it could be interesting if you used different weights. I used a size 6 needle for my project.

CO 12 and divide onto 4 dpns (just for the beginning and then I switched to a circ).

Join ends (done in the round)
1: Knit all
2: K1, yo, pm, k1, yo, k1 repeat to start of round
3: knit all
4: K to marker, yo, sm, k1, yo, k to end of needle repeat
-- then I just repeated 3 & 4 it was big enough. Then cast off.

edging: you could just leave it at this point but I wanted a little more. I did 1 round single crochet, 1 row of a loose loop (I think I did chain 4, skipping 1 sc).
Eventually, it’ll be too big for dpns and it was just easier to do on a circ. Once in the rhythm of the pattern, you’ll not need to know when the end of the needle is but you may want to use a different marker for the beg. of a row.
I just kept going with a color until I ran out and then switched. I liked the randomness of just going until I ran out but it would be cool to do it planned and organized too.
When the size you want, just bind off. I picked up a few extra rows on 2 sides to make this more rectangular, but really it probably is better just square (read as, I don't recommend this). I blocked mine when done and I liked the result. If I had made it from acrylic, I'm not sure if I'd block or not.

Happy knitting.

This picture is before blocking but you get the idea.