It’s not often I embark on large projects. Most of my knit and crochet projects are small and washcloths are my favorite go-to. But we found this MASSIVE cake of yarn at Walmart by Lion Brand called “I wanna make a blankie” which led to my husband asking me to make him a blanket out of this extra bulky and oh-so-soft yarn.

This is a size 6 yarn and 100% Polyester but it feels like a cloud! Each cake is a whopping 28oz/800g and 437yd/400m and will make one 42″ x 42″ blanket using size 11 (8mm) needles or a size N-13 (9mm) hook.

So we bought two cakes – one called “Iron” which is a dark grey color, and the other called “Pearl Grey” which is a light grey color. The original intent was to make a super thick blanket holding the two colors together. But then I realized just how small 42″ x 42″ was. This is when hubby said he wanted one big enough for our bed… we have a King sized bed…. EEK!!! So foolish me – I didn’t do the math to see what that would actually take. I just thought, “Oh, okay, I’ll just do it single ply and get a couple more cakes – that ought to be enough!” So I did.

I started with one pattern that turned out to be more trouble than it was worth. I couldn’t find a pattern that told me how many to chain to get the size I wanted, so I was guessing. After the first attempt failed about 10 rows in, I went back to the drawing board and found another pattern but this one told me a variety of sizes from Baby to King! WooHoo! Then I looked at the yardage…. The pattern calls for 5,694 yards of size 6 yarn! WHOA!!!! At 437 yards per cake, I was going to need a lot more than just 4 cakes!

I ultimately calculated that I was going to need about 13 cakes to make this blanket, so I went on the hunt to find the yarn cheaper. I succeeded by adding a third color – “Snow.” Like it’s name, this is a pure white yarn and I was able to get it for just $12.99/cake compared to the $19.99/cake I spent on the others. So yes, this blanket is costing me about $200. I also had to buy a bigger hook because the pattern called for a size Q (15mm) Hook. And just yesterday, I had to buy a tub to hold this monstrosity in because it’s already becoming a beast to work with and I’m only 36 rows in!

This picture is my current progress – each cake has made 16 rows each so far. The plan is to do one cake of “Iron”, one of “Pearl Grey”, then 9 cakes of “Snow” then finish it off with “Pearl Grey” and “Iron” (reverse of the beginning for a complete look).  I’ll provide the pattern I’m using below along with a link to the original author’s post in case you’d like to make one yourself (though perhaps in a different/smaller size!) It’s super easy and is basically the moss stitch for those in the know. Happy Crocheting!

Pattern Source: https://www.mooglyblog.com/soft-granite-blanket/

Author’s Ravelry: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/soft-granite-blanket

INSTRUCTIONS:

Row 1: With Color A, ch the number based on chart above (220 for King), skip 3 chains, sc in the next ch, *ch 1, skip next ch, sc in next ch; repeat from * to end, turn.

Row 2: Ch 2, skip the 1st st, sc in the next ch sp, *ch 1, skip the next st, sc in the next ch sp; repeat from * to end, turn.

Row 3 (last row): Repeat Row 2, changing colors as desired, then go to the Border instructions below:

Border: Break all yarn except for border color, then sc evenly around blanket, working 3 sc in each corner st.