What else says “pretty” and “punk” better than hot pink and skulls? This blanket is knit in five long strips, like scarves, then seamed together at the end. It’s a time-saving technique that eliminates seaming individual squares one by one.
Level: Beginner to Intermediate
Width: 5 feet
Length: 7 feet
Yarns:
Caron Simply Soft [100% acrylic; worsted weight 4ply; 315 yd per 170g skein]
[MC] Black — 6 skeins
[C1] Watermelon — 5 skeins
[C2] Limelight — 1 skein
[C3] Blue Mint — 1 skein
**[Names of colors have been recently edited to be corrected. Also, I had listed the number of skeins for each color as “1 skein each color” which is also incorrect and changed. I don’t remember exactly how many skeins and the numbers listed above may not be accurate — if you make this blanket, could you please help me out and comment with the number of skeins you used? Thanks — Jenny]**
Needles:
1 24-inch US #9 / 5.5 mm circular or straight needles
Tapestry needle
Gauge: 13 st/ 17 rows = 4 inches
Pattern Notes:
Alternate black and pink rows for every strip (see picture). Be sure to count rows carefully or the squares won’t match up when you seam them together. The skull chart below represents the entire square. Alternate colors as directed and as shown in the pictures.
Strip 1:
CO 40 st in MC
Rows 1-50: k St st.
Rows 51-100: Change color to C1. k St st.
Rows 101-150: Change color to MC. k St st.
Repeat rows 51-150 2 more times [3 times total]
BO stitches. [350 rows total in strip; 7 squares knitted]
Strip 2:
CO 40 st in C1
Rows 1-50: k St st.
Rows 51-100: Change color to MC. k St st.
Rows 101-150: Change color to C1. k St st.
Rows 151-200: Pattern square. Change color to MC. Use C2 for skull in patt.
Rows 201-250: Change color to MC. k St st.
Rows 251-300: Change color to C1. k St st.
Rows 301-350: Change color to MC. k St st.
BO stitches.
Strip 3:
CO 40 st in MC
Rows 1-50: k St st.
Rows 51-100: Change color to C1. k St st.
Rows 101-150: Pattern Square. Change color to MC. Use C3 for skull in patt.
Rows 151-200: Change color to C1. k St st.
Rows 201-250: Pattern Square. Change color to MC. Use C3 for skull in patt.
Rows 251-300: Change color to C1. k St st.
Rows 301-350: Change color to MC. k St st.
BO stitches.
Strip 4:
Repeat Strip 2
Strip 5:
Repeat Strip 1
I feel like a pioneer woman sewing this blanket together… I dunno :)
Finishing:
Block the strips well. Tie strips together at the corners of squares as a guide when seaming. Seam all strips together in the order they were knitted, or as shown in the picture. Sew in all tails.
[Optional] Sew a backing onto the blanket for extra warmth (not shown).
I’m wanting to make this project too. But when I looked on Caron’s site they didn’t have these colors. They have Watermelon not hot pink, black, berry blue and blue mint but no electric blue, and lime light but no Neon green. I’m confused, did you change their names or do they not carry the one you used?>>Kelli>knittingprettynurse@yahoo.com
I bought all those colors from Caron at Walmart and Michaels years ago. So they do exhist. they are the Carion Brites. limelight, Watermellon it’s the berry blue you want. black of course is black. I just checked my yarn box. :P
Awesome. Thank you.
How do I print this pattern? It won’t show up on my computer when I pres print preview.
Forgot to ask – do I only need one skein of the black and one of the pink – that will be enough? Also does this have to be done on a circular needle? I actually am changing this to black and orange and making orange pumpkins instead of skull and crossbones – for my son. The pattern is perfect for what I want to do.
I did get it to print out but I still need to know how many black and pink skeins of yarn are needed.
Hi Kathy, maybe your instructions skipped part? Six skeins black, five skeins pink in the version that came up on my computer.
this blanket looks super cute. i cant wait to knit it.
This blanket is as cute as it can be. Neither of my teenage sons have girlfriends right now so looks like I’m going to make it for ME! ~debbie
Hi >>Could you possibly give instructions as to how you blocked your strips to prevent the notorious curling of stockinette stitch?>>Thanks!
Well, the ends did end up curling a bit since I was too lazy to put on a border (er, I mean that was my artistic vision… yeah that’s it :P) Basically I used acrylic yarn and ironed the edges through a towel. Acrylic is basically plastic, so it melts a little when heated and stays put. Just be careful because it will look awful and stay that way if you press too hard. Hope this helps>>Jenny
i want to make this but i am like busy all the time whether its with school, homework, house chores, or so on. how long did it make you to make this?
Brilliant. I've been thinking about making a blanket that's essentially a bunch of scarves sewn together. I crocheted a blanket for my middle daughter years & years ago in this fashion. I don't have much patience for making something as big as a blanket, and working strips makes me feel like I'm actually accomplishing something!
I am trying to start this blanket and was wondering how you counted your rows. Did you count the cast on as a row?
Love your punk blanket and would really love to make one too; but I’m trying to catch up on my unfinished projects. I don’t know what it is but I fall in love with a pattern and I’ll get it to the point where I know it is turning out the way it should and then I move on to something else. Just whipped up the star afghan from Annie’s Attic (took less than a week), have to finish a calla lily doily, need to put together a sunbonnet sue and sam afghan, need to finish a baby blanket I started for a granddaughter EmJay before she was born, she just turned 4 in March, sheeeeeeesh. >I found your site by googling a pattern for a skull, to use on a coffee cosy I created and I decided to hang around and read your blog. I found it very fascinating, and no offense but nice to find someone else with fibromyalgia who understands the memory loss, and the pain. it was good to find out the memory loss was just another symtom of fibromyalgia, like the chronic fatigue and the depression. >Have you noticed that people who have fibromyalgia tend to who have something else wrong as well, like you with crohn’s disease, and myself with degenerative bone disease? >Am also deeply involved taking care of 3 of my grandchildren, whose mother abandoned them for the love of “meth”. >Forgive the ramblings, that’s what happens when you haven’t sept in 24 hours, and the morphine and oxy isn’t working and all the other meds they try you out on make you feel like your belly is gumball machine.>Keep up the beautiful work.>Teddie >Portland, Oregon
This pattern would be so perfect for my best friend… unfortunately I'm still more or less a beginning knitter and I'm scared of the commitment this would involve! Maybe someday =)
This blanket just went to the TOP of my Ravelry qeue. :) Thank you so much for posting this pattern, this is an AWESOME blanket.
I just received my yarn yesterday for this pattern. I can hardly wait to start. I'm making it for my 21 yr old grandson and his girl. I love working with Caron. Will be posting my results on Ravelry. Thank you so much for such a wonderful pattern.
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I’ve just started knitting this blanket & I have a question.
It seems like your pattern square isn’t correct? The colors on the skull are reversed?
Am I just reading it wrong?
Meredith you are correct, or at least thats how I read it on the chart. Just came back to the pattern to check something and noticed that my skulls did not look like the blanket in the pics. I have more of an outline to the skull and full crossbones. And I notice this now, when I am halfways done! Still looks alright though I guess.
Meredith, Tracy – you’re right, the chart will make a skull outline for the top half ..on the Ravelry page, there’s a completed project (look for the orange skulls) that are just the outline. I want skulls!! Here’s how I changed it:
I printed out the chart and shaded the eyes and nose (currently showing as being in CC) with a pencil, so they’d be close to the same gray as the rest of the MC squares. Then I went over it with a marker, changing the “face” to go from the outside of the skull to the edges of the eyes and nose. Basically rows 26 – 44 need to be altered to get a true skull picture; the outline of the skull is correct (CC) and then all the area within the face should be changed to CC up to the point on the chart where CC is indicated – the eyes and nose. Those should be done in MC.
If you print the chart out and color over it as described above, you’ll see the “full” skull picture. To make it clearer, I then colored in all the CC (white) boxes, even though they’re correct – that way I’m looking at a true picture of a skull and crossbones.
Hope that helps people!
Just ran across your blanket on Pinterest…it’s beautiful! Thank you for sharing.
Is there any way that you could make the skull pattern bigger so you can see which one is cc and mc.
Just wanted to let you know there is a slight mistake on Strip 2 directions on rows 201-350. 201-250 should be C1, 251-300 should be MC, and 301-350 should be C1 again if you are to keep with the checkboard pattern ;o) I can’t wait to get started on this right away!! Thanks for sharing
Is there a corrected chart,showing the right way to do a fully colored skull?
Great chart! I love the colors you selected for the blanket, super modern. Thanks so much for sharing this for free!
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I knit on looms. Can you show a pattern for looms or translate the pattern?
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