This is a “virus” pattern baby blanket made for a baby girl at church, due to make her arrival next month. I like the pattern ok; it’s identical to a virus shawl except for the setup rounds, so it took very little concentration. I like the colours ok; they remind me of a soft summer sunrise. But I am never, never, never using this yarn again.
This was made with Lion Brand’s Big Scoop yarn in the colourway “Parfait” and it was infuriating. I should have remembered that, because this is actually the third project I started with the same skein (the first two got frogged). Nearly every time I pulled a length of yarn, I got a tangled mess of yarn barf from the middle. Some of the tangles were so bad I actually had to cut the yarn (three times!!) because I couldn’t get them undone. ALSDKFGDLFKJGFDLJGSDFG.
One thing I am pleased with is the little flower I self-drafted to embellish the centre. It was just pale blue mass, so I thought I needed a little something. Here is the pattern for anyone who is interested:
Quick Crochet Flower
Chain 4, join with slip stitch to make round. Single crochet 7x in the round. Join with slip stitch, chain 1, turn.
2 single crochets in each single crochet below (14 stitches total). Join with slip stitch.
Chain 5, turn. Skip stitch, join with slip stitch to following single crochet below. Chain 5, skip stitch, join to following stitch as above. Repeat until end of round, join with slip stitch to first stitch (7 petals).
Turn. Slip stitch into next empty single crochet below. Chain 7, skip stitch, join to following single crochet below. Since you’re working on the back of the existing petals, you’ll want to watch that your yarn doesn’t grab any of them. Repeat until end of round, slip stitch to join (14 petals) and fasten off.
To finish this off, I added a quick border to the last set of virus shells consisting of four rows of moss stitch. Overall I am pretty pleased with how it all came together, but my gosh, Big Scoop — you’re the worst.
In this Ordinary Time 
Given that it was so difficult, glad it turned out so beautifully!
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I have a yarn friend who says “get sock yarn from premiere instead”
blanket is rad!
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Yeah, this yarn was a gift. I usually buy better quality when I can — but since I had it and liked the colours I figured I’d give it a whirl.
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Was it just pulling the yarn from the centre that frustrated you about this yarn? If so, I wouldn’t totally give up on it; commercially wound balls are not always intended to be pulled from the centre.
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That was a large measure of it; I suppose it’s possible that I should have drawn from the outside but there was nothing to make me suspect that and it wasn’t mentioned on the label or any online descriptions. But I’m also really not crazy about this kind of varigated yarn. Gradients are more my jam!
I’m not going to get rid of it just yet since it might be worth reballing… but I might reball it and then pass it on.
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Working with irritating yarn is the absolute worst! But the final result on that is so lovely!
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Thanks 🙂
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