It’s not exactly cold yet in Southern California, but we’ve had a few nights with a brief chill in the air. It made me want to grab a cozy sweater blanket and snuggle up on the couch.
That inspired me to pick up my jumbo size 50 needles and start making a blanket with this gorgeous soft puffy Color Clouds yarn from Lion Brand. Lion Brand sent this yarn for me to play with last winter and I’ve been mulling over the perfect use for months. Finally, I’ve got it!
A Cozy Sweater Blanket Recipe:
Color Clouds is a synthetic yarn and perfect for my family room because it is so wash and wear. It is as soft as you would expect from the name. Really delicious. I’ve been looking forward to using it for a blanket.
Last winter I experimented with arm knitting this yarn but it was not heavy enough to get the dense blanket I craved. That’s the tricky bit with arm knitting. If you don’t have something that is thick enough, you end up with a giant fishing net. Related: I now know I can whip up a wicked net from vines, with my bare arms, if I’m ever on Naked and Afraid.
Lightweight sweater blankets make me want to weep. I wanted something somewhat dense and heavy so I paired the Color Clouds yarn with some Paton’s Cobble yarn and busted out my #50 needles.
TBH, I’m less in love with the Patons (it pills) but I had some on hand from a big clearance sale at Michael’s, and it did sort of “fill in the gaps”, giving the blanket more body and weight.
A lot of weight, it turns out! For smallish throw blanket (around 40×50) this things weighs a ton. That’s ok. I like to be glued to the couch when I snuggle in for a good tv binge watching session. Toss a cat on top and I’ll be asking for someone to fetch me drinks.
Cozy Sweater Blanket Knitting Tips:
I didn’t use a pattern, just cast on about 55 stitches and knit in Garter stitch (knitting every row – no purling). It was more stitches than my needles wanted to hold, so I had to really be careful at the end of each row, but I managed to cram it all on. I kept it simple because as per usual I was knitting while watching tv. This took me about a week of shows or about 5 hrs total knitting time. It looks pretty sexy draped on my couch. Like any good sweater blanket should.
I’m hoping for more fall weather ASAP!
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