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The finishes of the Winter Blanket CAL are finally here! Today we’re going to go over how to put the first three parts of our CAL together to get our cozy winter blanket.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve enjoyed every single step of this CAL. It’s been a great experience to get to piece together all of these smaller patterns and include video tutorials that lead up to this big masterpiece.
If you missed any parts of the CAL, you can check out the details below! Join in at any time by following the steps.
CAL Links
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Materials
- All prior blanket squares – 144 total squares
- Blocking boards [my favorite is below]
- Wool Wash or other no rinse liquid soap for blocking
- 5.5mm crochet hook
- tapestry needle / other end-weaving tool
- scissors
Gauge
- Each blanket square un-blocked = 4″ x 4″
- Each blanket square blocked = 4.5″ x 4.5″
- Total blocked blanket = 54″ x 54″
Stitch Abbreviations
- st – stitch
- sp – space
- sl st – slip stitch
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Pattern
Blocking
First, we’ll grab some wool wash or no-rinse soap and block our pieces. I am choosing to wet block my pieces so I take a little bit of my wool wash and add it to my sink filled with water. I grab a handful of my blanket squares at a time and submerge them in the water for a few minutes.
Once the squares have been in for a few minutes, I will take them out, gently squeezing out the water and laying them flat on a towel. Once the towel is covered in a layer of blanket squares (one layer of blanket squares, no overlapping), I will roll up the blanket and squeeze out the excess water. I let the squares sit rolled up overnight and then unroll the towel the next day.
Once the squares are off the towel I block them into 4.5″ by 4.5″ squares using my wooden blocking board. I first space four pegs 4.5″ apart on my blocking board and add my stack of blanket squares on top. I then take some extra pegs and place them along the sides of the squares about halfway in between each peg. The video below shows more detail on this.
Once the squares are dry, I remove them and get ready for seaming. I repeat this process in groups for all completed squares.
Seaming
For the seaming, we will be working from left to right and following the diagram below. Starting with the first row, line your squares up (12 total) in order. Grab your crochet hook and slip stitch together each square, making sure the proper side is facing you. Square 1 should be facing the wrong side (starting chain tail to the left), Square 2 should be facing the wrong side (tail to the left) and Square 3 should be facing the wrong side (tail to the right).
To slip stitch, pick up a space (one strand of yarn) from each of the squares and slip stitch them together – work vertically up the two squares until they are attached. Cut & tie off, weave in all ends. Work this way across the entire row and repeat the process for the second row as well.
Once you have two rows worked up, slip stitch the two rows together in the same way as before, this time working horizontally.
You can refer to the video below to see how I am seaming my pieces together. The right side of the piece (the opposite side of the seaming) should begin to have a more puffed-out texture making it resemble a quilt while the wrong side will show the seaming we’ve done.
Repeat the seaming process until all 12 rows have been seamed together. Once done, cut & tie in all the ends.
After you’ve seamed everything, you may want to lightly block the finished blanket. I used a steamer to lightly loosen the seams to make sure my gauge was still met.
Optional Backing
If you would like to hide the seamed side of the blanket or add an extra layer to make the blanket extra warm, you can seam fabric to the backside of the blanket. If you are doing this, poke holes in your fabric for each space along the edge of the blanket and secure the fabric by following the single crochet border listed below.
Border
With the completed blanket, attach yarn at one corner. Work a single crochet all the way to the next corner, work 3 scs in each corner, repeat this process across and in each corner until you reach the beginning. Work 3sc in the beginning corner [should be 3scs total on that corner] then sl st into beginning sp. Cut & tie off, weave in ends.
