Quickly Knit a Mitered Square Blanket with this Colorful Chunky Yarn

Use a chunky self-striping yarn to make this colorful Mitered Square Blanket. It’s super quick to knit up, and the pattern can be adapted to make any size blanket you wish. 

This yarn review is a collaboration with American Yarns. Contains affiliate links.

Nothing beats using chunky yarn when it comes to knitting up a project super quickly.

When I laid my hands on the latest offering from American Yarns – Premier Colorfusion Chunky, I immediately knew a colorful squishy blanket was in my future.

I love using self striping yarns because you get the full effect of colourful, and in this case gradient hues, without the need to change yarns and weave in lots of ends.

The hard decision about when to change colors is taken out of your hands, leaving you with a fun color changing surprise as you knit.

About Premier Colorfusion Chunky Yarn

This yarn was really enjoyable to knit with, and its ‘feel’ was pretty much the same as Premier Bloom Chunky which I’ve reviewed here. I suspect it’s exactly the same yarn base with the only difference being the color treatment.

The yarn is quite soft and squishy, with just a tiny bit of fluffiness. 100% acrylic, so it’s machine washable (gentle cycle), although I’d probably hand wash this personally to prevent pilling that may be caused by a machine wash.

Even though the yarn has the appearance of being loosely spun, I actually didn’t really have a problem with the plies splitting. It holds together pretty well.

The colours in the range are super vibrant and very pretty. I really love the gradual gradient effect and colour speckling though the yarn.

Each ball of yarn has around one gradient repeat through it. I combined three different colourways in my blanket to showcase the some of the colours available in the range.

Because the colour changes in Premier Colorfusion Chunky are fairly short, I wanted a pattern that had a smaller stitch count (short rows) to show off the sections of colours nicely.

Generally the wider the project (more stitches), the narrower the stripes will appear.

Knitted with the recommended needle size, this yarn has a lovely heavy drape. Keep that in mind if making large garments like cardigans or ponchos and you’ll get A LOT of stretch.

This yarn would also show its stripey pattern well in projects such as hats and scarves.

One downside of this yarn is because of its chunky nature, a 100g (3.5oz) ball only contains 100m (109yds), so it doesn’t go very far.

Knitters, and especially crocheters will find that they churn through a ball of this yarn quite quickly, so plan for that when tackling a bigger project.

In the blanket I made below, one ball made just over 4 blocks.

You may also enjoy:

• Rainbow Baby Blanket Knitting Pattern
• Grid Beanie Knitting Pattern
• Velvet Yarn Crochet Baby Blanket
• Pretty Blooms Chunky Yarn Baby Blanket Knitting Pattern

Knitting a Mitered Square Baby Blanket

I’ve always wanted to try my hand at knitting up a mitered square blanket.

I like the idea of only needing to knit one block at a time, but not having to stitch anything together at the end.

Most mitered square blanket patterns involve picking up stitches from adjacent blocks as you go – No sewing required!

There are so many patterns available online for this classic style knitted mitered blanket. Rather than reinventing the wheel and writing a new pattern, I found one that was really well written and adjusted it to my needs.

Magic Tiles Blanket by Brenda Brayfield on Ravelry fit the bill perfectly because it uses yarn continuously without breaking for each block.

The pattern has purled rows which give it a ridged pattern, but I changed it to garter stitch (knit all rows) to make it showcase the striped effect of the yarn more clearly.

I’ve written how I adapted the instructions in the pattern notes below for making a baby blanket or lap throw size.

You’ll need to follow Brenda’s Magic Tiles Blanket Pattern for the main technique, with my modifications as indicated.

I followed Brenda’s instructions for an i-cord border, but you can add any simple border you wish.

Otherwise feel free to use any mitered square blanket pattern you prefer.

To make this Mitered Square Rainbow Gradient Knitted Lap Throw / Baby Blanket

Finished size (unblocked): 84cm x 104cm/33″x41″

You will need:

• Magic Tiles Blanket Pattern (free via Ravelry)
• 6 balls Premier Colorfusion Chunky in any colour you prefer – I used 2 balls each of Vintage, Tropical, and Painted Desert (5 balls for the squares, 1 ball for the border)
• 8.0 mm (US 11) straight or circular needles (I use this interchangeable set)
• Yarn needle
• Scissors

Gauge (approx) 10st in 10cm/4″ in garter stitch

Pattern modifications:

The finished blanket is 4×5 squares – Make Row 1, 5 squares across for a total of 4 rows.

Each finished square measures around 20x20cm

Note errata – “Getting Started Square A – After Cable Casting On 35 sts, it is not necessary to turn to work the Set Up Row”

Squares pattern modification:

Row 4, 10, 16, 22, 28 (WS) – Slip 1 knitwise tbl, knit to last stitch, purl 1

Row 32 – Slip 1 knitwise, knit 1, purl 1

Follow pattern for joining and border.

This pattern is well written and easy to follow, and once you get the hang of making a couple of squares, you’ll barely need to reference it at all as it’s quite simple to remember.

With this chunky yarn, each square grows very quickly. I manages to finish this lap sized blanket in just under a week of evening knitting.

I think you’ll agree that the simple mitered square pattern really shows off the lovely color gradations in the Colorfusion yarn.

Normally I tend to give the blankets that I knit and crochet away to friends and charities, but I’m totally smitten with this one. It’s just so squishy and cozy, and just the right size as a lap throw.

I’m snuggling under it right now as I type this post.

You can purchase the yarns featured from www.americanyarns.com.au