Uni Stash Blanket

Hello everyone!

I’m afraid my posting here is going to be few and far between for a little while, so apologies in advance (well, I suppose it has been a bit like it already). Sorry. But there’s nothing I can do, it’s just going to be a busy year. And hopefully a productive one that’s worth the effort.

Anyway, the good news is I have finished my Uni Stash Blanket! Because I didn’t really use a proper pattern apart from for the squares, I am going to be doing a little tutorial about how I made it. Are you ready?

If anything doesn’t make sense, please let me know in the comments!

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(I do apologise about the phone camera photos!)

Materials

• any yarn you have in your stash
• appropriate hook sizes
  • e.g. 4mm for DK, 5mm for aran (adjust as necessary to get size)
• DK yarn (I used James C. Brett Top Value DK) and approx. 1.5 x 100g balls
  • this will vary according to size of blanket
• 4.5mm hook

I use UK terminology

For the Squares

These are just simple granny squares. Size will vary according to size of first square – mine is a 4-round square in chunky. Use your first square as your ‘set square’ and make as many as you like for the size required. Mix and match colours, get creative! I tried not to use white on the outer rounds so that different shades/dye-lots of white wouldn’t clash. I used a simple granny square pattern from this book and my squares increased by doing [2tr, 4ch, 2tr] in the corners. I sewed in my ends as I went

Joining

Once you’ve made all your squares and got them into order, you will start to join.

1. Using white DK yarn and 4.5mm hook, ch 1 (this will start the row with the first dc as the first stitch, so no joining the yarn first – essentially an invisible start)
2. Holding Square #1 and Square #2 together, 2dc together in the corner
3. Working front sides facing you, dc in top loop only across
   • For this you may need to do a bit of maths if the two squares are not of the same thickness of yarn which will have meant different numbers of stitches. I did 2dc in the one with less stitches whilst joining each of these 2 to a different stitch in the one with more stitches.
4. 2dc in the corner
5. Repeat steps 2-4, joining Square #1 to Square #3
6. Fasten off.

Clockwise from bottom right: Square #1, Square #2, Square #5, Square #3

1. Starting with Square #3, repeat steps 1-5 joining to Square #4 and Square #5
   • You will now be crocheting in the opposite direction
2. Replace the last dc in the corner with a dc-2-tog, the second half of this stitch joining Square #5’s corner to the corner of Square #1.
3. Dc-2-tog again, the first half of this stitch again joining Squares #5 and #1’s corners and the second half joining Squares #5 and #2.
4. Continue as before, joining Square #2 to #5 and #6.

Continue like this for all the squares, working in corner to corner fashion. The picture above should hopefully illustrate.

Border

In my Rounds 2-4, my colours ran out before I had got to the end, so I just joined in a new colour and continued.

Round 1: Using white DK yarn and 4.5mm hook, start in a corner RS facing by ch1, 6htr into corner. Htr around, doing 6htr in each end corner, adjusting increasing/decreasing where appropriate according to yarn thickness. On corners where 2 squares join, 2htr in the 1st corner space, htr-2-tog (first half of stitch in 1st corner space, second half in 2nd corner space), 2htr in 2nd corner space. Join to first htr with sl st. Fasten off.

Round 2: Using another colour of DK weight and 4.5mm hook, ch1 and htr in 3rd loop of any htr of Round 1. Htr in 3rd loop around, in the 2 corner stitches (so the 3rd and 4th stitches in the corner htrs), working 2htr in each. Skip each htr-2-tog. Join to first htr with sl st. Fasten off.

Round 3: Using another colour of DK weight and 4.5mm hook, ch1 and htr in 3rd loop of any htr of Round 1. Htr in 3rd loop around, in the 2 corner stitches (so the 3rd and 4th stitches in the corner htrs), working 2htr in each. Join to first htr with sl st. Fasten off.

Round 4: Using white DK yarn and 4.5mm hook, ch1 and htr in 3rd loop of any htr of Round 1. Htr in 3rd loop around, in the 2 corner stitches (so the 3rd and 4th stitches in the corner htrs), working 2htr in each. Join to first htr with sl st. Fasten off.

Sew in ends

Et Voila!

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I hope you found this tutorial useful! If there is anything that isn’t clear, please do let me know!

Best wishes,

Eleanor x

I’m joining in with Thistlebear’s Winter Project Link Party