Lion Brand came out with a new yarn in a cake bigger than most people’s heads. I Wanna Make A Blankie yarn is made with the idea that one cake of yarn is all it takes to make a baby blanket. The yarn comes with one knit and one crochet pattern on the label. Easy peasy lemon squeezy—a baby blanket in just a few hours.
I needed to see what all of the fuss is about, so I ordered two cakes (to get free shipping). I knew I was going to make up my own pattern, but the pattern on the label seems to be a simple corner-to-corner double crochet pattern.
I have come up with the Squishy Square Baby Blankie pattern, but before I get into that, let’s talk about the yarn.
1. I toyed with the idea of trying to find the center pull for this cake, but abandoned it before I pulled any yarn out. Save yourself the trouble and just pull from the outside. The cake is large enough and heavy enough, that you can pull from the outside and the cake will stay put wherever you put it.
2. If you’ve ever used this weight and style of yarn, you know if works up quickly, but simple patterns are best. Anything too intricate will be way too bulky in this yarn.
3. At approximately $23/cake of yarn, this makes an inexpensive blanket.
4. My only negative: Part of the reason this yarn is such an awesome deal is that you can do an entire blanket with one skein of yarn. However, I found no less than four haphazard joins of yarn when using my ball. The joins are strong enough not to pull out, but one had yarn that stuck out and is sure to stick out of the blanket.
That being said, let’s talk about the pattern. I knew I wanted to do a blanket “in the round,” since I didn’t know how big the blanket would end up being. I chose to make it square. I tried to make it more intricate, but revised a couple of times until I came up with what would work.
The finished product is a warm, soft, cozy, cuddly, squishy baby blanket measuring 32” square. I used only one color, but the pattern could easily be modified to change colors after every Round 4 to make a striped pattern.
This blanket could also be made larger by adding another skein or two of yarn and continuing the pattern.
Squishy Square Baby Blanket Pattern
Yarn: 1 cake of Lion Brand I Wanna Make a Blankie yarn
Hook: I used a M/N (9 mm) hook.
Finished size: 32” square
Gauge: 4” square after row 2
Abbreviations:
Ch-chain
Sc-single crochet
BPSC-back post single crochet (see special stitches)
Dc-double crochet
sl st- slip stitch
reverse sc-reverse single crochet (see special stitches)
YO-yarn over
Special Stitches:
BPSC—Insert hook from back to front around the indicated stitch. YO and pull up a loop. YO and pull through both loops on hook.
Reverse Single Crochet—With right side facing, insert hook from front to back in previous stitch. YO and pull up a loop. YO and pull through both loops on hook.
Round 1: Ch 6. Sl st to first chain to form a ring. Making sure to work over your tail, all stitches will be made in the center of the ring. Ch 4 (counts a dc and ch 2 here and throughout). Work 2 dc in center. [3 dc, ch 2] two times. 2 dc and sl st to 2nd chain of ch 4. Sl st into the corner space. (There should be four sides with 3 dc divided by ch 2 spaces.)
Round 2: Ch 1. [(sc, ch 2, sc) in corner ch 2 space. BPSC around each st across] four times. Join with sl st to first sc. Sl st into ch 2 space.
Round 3: Ch 5 (counts as dc and ch 3 here and throughout). Dc in ch 2 space. [Dc in each stitch across, (dc, ch 3, dc) in corner space] three times. End by dc in each st to corner. Sl st to 2nd ch in ch 5. Sl st into corner.
Round 4: Ch 2. Dc, ch 2, 2 dc in corner space. [Dc in each stitch across, (2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc) in corner space] three times. End by dc in each st to corner. Sl st to top of ch 2. Sl st into corner.
Repeat rounds 2-4 five times. On final row, do not sl st to corner.
Border Round: Ch 1, sc in same st. Reverse sc in previous stitch and each stitch around. Put 3 Reverse sc in each corner space. Sl st first sc and fasten off. Weave in ends.
Check out the Squishy Round Baby Blankie here.
Want both both Squishy Baby Blankie Patterns in one easy-to-print PDF download? You can purchase is here for $4.99.