If you had told me 5 years ago I would love creating and crocheting blankets I would have said you were crazy! They use a lot of yarn & take forever to finish! Who likes making blankets? Well.... apparently me. lol
Thankfully I have found a few places to donate blankets. Four a year get sent to a friend who gifts them to Veterans at Christmas, and some go to Project Linus which gives blankets to sick children. And sometime I donate them to a seniors home for someone who might be cold.
Quite often I get asked what my favorite yarn is for a project. Because I like to try many different yarns it's hard to say what my favorite is! And not everyone makes blankets, or shawls, or scarves etc. So I thought I would split up the list into yarns I like for different projects.
My favorite yarns for blankets are....
Bernat Premium (100% Acrylic, 360 yards / 329 meters, 7 oz / 198 g) Love this yarn, it's super soft and easy to work with. However not each color is the same thickness. Some colors are closer to dk weight, and some are closer to a #5 bulky weight yarn. It's unfortunate because that means I can't make a pattern striped using this yarn. For example: I was going to make this blanket for my uncle. I had all the colors in the Bernat Premium, but when I started to make the blanket I realized that each color was a different thickness! It was very noticeable. So I ended up buying some Caron One Pound for two of the colors. The blue and the red are One Pound and the grey is Premium. One drawback to the Premium yarn is that you can only find it at Walmart. Well Yarnspirations has it as well for almost triple the cost.
2. Caron One Pound (100% Acrylic, 812 yards / 742 meters, 16 ounces / 453.6 grams).
This yarn is labelled as worsted weight, but it's crochets a bit thicker than most worsted weight yarns. I use a 5.5 mm hook with this yarn. It's not the softest yarn, but if you wash the blanket when it's finished it softens nicely. Since most places I donate too want the blankets washed, it works out well. So far I haven't noticed that the colors are different thicknesses, so it's a nice yarn for a striped blanket. They do have quite a few colors if you look in the right place. There are quite a few different websites that carry this yarn. It's not the same price on every website, so do some research. :)
3. Stylecraft Special Aran or Paintbox Simply Aran.
Stylecraft Special Aran (100% Acrylic, 214 yards / 196 meters, 100 grams)
Paintbox Yarns Simply Aran (100% Acrylic, 201 yards / 184 meters, 3.5 ounces / 100 grams)
They are pretty much the same yarn. The Paintbox Aran might be a touch thicker, but they are equally soft and easy to work with. They both come in an amazing amount of colors! They are great yarns for lighter weight blankets. Both yarns show stitch definition well. The colors are the same thickness, so easy to make something multicolored. I like to use them for baby blankets. Since we live in Canada.... for myself I would like a warmer heavier blanket.
The Paintbox yarn is only at LoveCrafts & they tend to be out of a lot of colors I like. The Stylecraft yarn can also be purchased at LoveCrafts but the best place to buy it is Wool Warehouse in the UK. They always have all the colors. I have ordered from them often with no issues.
The first blanket was made with the Stylecraft Special Aran and the 2nd one with the Paintbox Simply Aran.
Oh I should mention.... I ordered yarn from LoveCrafts last month and had to pay extra duties at the post office. The order came out of the UK! Previous orders where shipped out of the US, so not sure what is going on there. Definitely a deterrent for ordering from LoveCrafts. Probably won't do it again :(
4. Caron Jumbo Ombre' & Premier Puzzle.
Caron Jumbo Ombre (100% acrylic, 595 yards / 544 meters, 12 ounces / 340 grams)
Premier Puzzle Yarn (100% Acrylic, 328 yards / 300 meters, 7 ounces / 200 grams)
I know, they are very different yarns, but for me they are equal in quality and ease of use. Because I donate all the blankets I crochet these are great options. They both have nice colors, though because they aren't a solid color it can be hard to see the stitch definition. The Puzzle yarn does have more color options than the Caron Jumbo.
Both are nice and soft even before washing. And there is quite a bit on one skein. Though if you are making a blanket, I would suggest at least 4-5 skeins of the Caron and 6-7 of the Puzzle yarn. I'm in the process of making a blanket with Puzzle and have 6 skeins. I think it will be 56" long x 50" wide when I'm finished. It will be donated to a veteran for Christmas so that should be a good size.
The only blanket I have finished so far is the Caron Jumbo Ombre' blanket. When the pattern is released it will be free on my website :)
5. Red Heart Comfort (100% Acrylic, 612 yards / 560 meters, 12 ounces / 340 grams)
Well - I have used this yarn a few times so I feel like I need to add it to the list. It wouldn't be my first choice, but it's a good yarn. Not as soft as the yarns above, but once it's washed it's a softer blanket. It does make a nice warm blanket, so good for donating. When it's on a good sale I will buy some :) Once in a while they will have the really large skeins on sale. Usually it's also easy to find, maybe not all the colors, but enough for a large project.
So far the colors I've used have all be even in thickness. With some of the colors you do have to watch for splitting.
Here are a few blankets I've made with this yarn. The last one is a pattern I just finished, needs to be tested before releasing.
6. I almost forgot about this one! I just finished a baby blanket with Bernat Super Value (100% Acrylic, 440 yards / 402 meters, 7 ounces / 197 grams).
Mary Maxim had a sale on blanket kits so decided to try this yarn. It was cheaper to purchase the kit then the yarn separately. The yarn is soft-ish, I haven't washed the blanket yet so not sure if it will get softer. But it is a nice yarn for blankets. I purchased 4 other skeins of the yarn in different colors and they all seem to be the same thickness. If the price was right I would buy this yarn again.
Ok! Those are my favorite blanket type yarns so far. I do have a few more waiting for me at home, and some new yarns from Premier I want to try so my favorite list might change yet lol.
Watch for my favorite yarn lists for hats, scarves and shawls!
You can find all my links here: