cheapest non nasty acrylic yarn for granny squares?

[EarlyIntheMorning]

Bearing in mind how expensive yarn is and how much would be needed to make a blanket for a single bed, what's the cheapest yarn I could get away with for the end result to look good and have longevity?

[tribpot]

Early, the one used for Woolly Hugs (at least for Little Hugs) is Stylecraft Special DK yarn.

[TheWoollybacksWife]

I have now made 4 blankets that work out at about 4 foot by 5 foot - so not quite single bed size (I would think you'd need 4.5 foot by 6 foot at least).

I used about 8 x 100g of Stylecraft special which sells for £1.99 on the Deramores website. You would perhaps need 10 balls so about £20 worth of yarn.

There is a photo of my latest blanket on my profile. It is a circle-to-square pattern and I used join as you go rather than sewing them together. It's a brilliant method for a lazy trout like me

[SoupDragon]

Yes, Stylecraft Special DK :)

£1.69 per ball at Wool Warehouse

[SoupDragon]

NB. There are some very bright colours - avoid Jaffa, Bright Green, Bright Pink and Fiesta unless you want neon :)

[EarlyIntheMorning]

Thank you everyone. Stylecraft Special DK seems the way to go . I should clarify that I haven't even learned how to crochet yet but my friend is teaching me and she has high expectations for me .

[EarlyIntheMorning]

Thank you for the warning SoupDragon. I really really wanted a little bit of orange. I guess it would be okay to find a suitable orange from a different brand.

[TheWoollybacksWife]

Thanks to Soupy's warning on another thread I'm going to make my niece a blanket for uni next year in black, white and jaffa - it will look like Nemo. My niece is driving my poor sister to despair with her wardrobe full of black and sludgy colours.

[SoupDragon]

I saw a Nemo blanket on Ravelry. It looked fabulous :) I plan on making a Little Hug to use up the Jaffa I ordered in ignorance :o

[Dutchoma]

Not sure what you meant by a Nemo blanket, Soupdragon I searched it on Ravelry and the only thing it came up with was a Sea blanket, which, incidentally, was created by a girl who used to live round the corner from us before she emigrated to Canada.

Quite an expensive pattern, though and knitted, not crocheted.

[SoupDragon]

It was just orange, white and black like Nemo the clown fish.

[PeterParkerSays]

Just a tip - if you're doing a blanket, just make one granny square and keep letting it get bigger and bigger, changing colour every row / every couple of rows. Loads of different squares to sew together at the end are a pain in the arse and a real slog.

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

I recommend either the Stylecraft Special dk, mentioned above, or the James C Brett, Top Value dk - both come in a really good range of colours, and are good to knit or crochet with.

[monikar]

Hobbycraft used to sell some wool called Bonus DK which was nice and soft and not too pricey. I think it was made by Sirdar. They had a good range of colours too. I knitted some into baby cardigans as I thought it was soft enough for that.

Peter I made a blanket by the continuous method you described - it was good in that there was no sewing up, but it seemed so so slow to do, as one round would take ages. I do a lot of knitting so have lots of oddments so these blankets are ideal for using them up.

Woolly sorry if it is a silly question but how do you join as you go? I always sew up using an oversewing stitch but it can show and look a bit untidy.

[EarlyIntheMorning]

The sewing is very off putting and probably over ambitious. Maybe I should do a stripey one...

[TheWoollybacksWife]

Monikar have a look at the Attic24 blog. She has a photo tutorial fir joining granny squares. It is the one I followed and I could kick myself for not doing it sooner as it is so easy. I do end up doing a (uk) double crochet in the chain space to join - I think Attic24 uses a slip stitch - but I am happier with my method.

Now if I could only get my head around crocheting over the loose ends after joining in a new colour...

[monikar]

Woolly thank you very much, I will have a look at that . I try and crochet over the loose ends when I join a new colour but it never looks as tidy as sewing them in afterwards.

[IDugUpADiamond]

I am also learning how to crochet at the moment and I'm planning on doing the Atic24 granny stripe. Thank you for the yarn recommendation. If I was to attempt a single bed size blanket, how many balls of yarn will I need to buy?

[monikar]

My crochet blankets are for babies and I tend to do about a yard square - this uses about 400-500g. I would think a single bed size would be at least double this size so if I were you then I would buy 1000g so that would be 10 balls of 100g.

[IDugUpADiamond]

Really monikar? That doesn't sound like the crazy amounts I thought in my head!

[SoupDragon]

My not-quite-single-bed sized rainbow ripple took about 1.5 100g balls each of 7 colours. So, between 10 and 14 would probably be about right for single bed. I would estimate more than 10 though - I can't remember whether the Stripe uses more or less yarn than a Ripple.

[IDugUpADiamond]

Any photos Soup?

[SoupDragon]

Um... here and here

It is what I call "sofa snuggle size" so is slightly less than 5'7" long.

[IDugUpADiamond]

You made that??? It's gorgeous! How long did it take you?