Crochet Chunky Blankets – Great Gifts!

     Hey everyone, how’s it going? Hope you’re all doing well.

     I was thinking ‘you know what would be the perfect topic to post about in the middle of summer during some of the warmest weather Ireland has had in decades? (It actually passed 30 degrees Celsius on a few days). Chunky blankets – really thick and warm and heavy chunky crocheted blankets!’

     Makes sense to me. Okay, I think I’m just really craving some slightly cooler weather because it’s hard to crochet in the heat.

     I’ll get to it – there’s nothing really new in today’s post, it’s a chunky crochet blanket. I’ve written about them before. In fact, this one here is the fifth one I’ve made! Five blankets, that’s a lot. Thankfully they do work up pretty quick because usually repeat makes get boring. This blanket here is one I made back in December for my sister. Well, for my sister to give to someone. My sister chose the colours: pink and grey. Okay, she actually said “pink, grey, white, black – those kind of colours?” and I picked out the specific colours. The pink and light grey are Paintbox yarns and the dark grey is a Stylecraft yarn. I used three strands of light grey dk yarn, two strands of pink dk yarn and one strand of dark grey dk yarn. I think the colours look really nice together, they’re a great combination!

     Anyway, this blanket is worked up pretty much the same as the others – I used the Lottie and Albert Super Chunky Rainbow Blanket pattern, minus the pompoms. You should definitely check it out (it’s a free pattern!).

     Actually, there is something I did different this time – I decided to add fringe to the blanket! Yea or nay to the fringe?

     I bought 18 balls of yarn in total when they were on sale so the price was only €36. I used 12 of the balls of yarn to make a large lap blanket and 6 of the balls of yarn to make two cat blankets (that’s what the request was for!).

     Basically, this is the kind of make that I really enjoy doing because you can use really cheap yarns and the end result is still great. 12 balls of dk yarn gets you a nice size chunky blanket and if you get yarns on sale for €2 a ball, that’s only €24 for a blanket! So it won’t break the bank and making something this chunky won’t take long at all –  a few evenings at most. So, great gift idea! I think so at least. I do enjoy making gifts for people but it can be hard sometimes because you want something that’s nice, unique but that also has use. I do think crochet blankets will be one of my go-to gift ideas for the future.

    I did post a picture of this blanket on Instagram and it was quite popular with a few people wondering if I could make them one. Unfortunately, I couldn’t because the cost would be way too much…not for the yarn, which I’ve mentioned is cheap, but the postage. The blanket doesn’t fold up the smallest and weighs quite a lot (18 balls of 100g of yarn…that turns out to be heavy!) so posting a blanket like this to someone would be very, very, pricey. That is a downside to it so it will have to remain a go-to gift idea to people I can physically hand it to.

     What about you fellow crafters, do you have a go-to handmade gift idea?