Rainbow log cabin blanket

Just look at this blanket! I'm so in love with it!

I had the idea months and months ago but needed to finish a couple of other things first so for a while I just had a drawing of what I wanted it to finally look like and the yarn. 

Now I haven't written a pattern for this because truth be told it doesn't really need one.  I didn't come up with the technique and all I've really done is colour placement and putting it into a log cabin style so I'm going to share with you how I decided on colour placement, where you can find tutorials to do the same joining technique and the yarns/hooks.

I started by drawing a log cabin template and then filled in the colours gradually moving through the colours of the rainbow.  Below is a drawing of my colour placement.  I have a red and black notebook which has graph paper on every other page which makes it super easy to draw designs and take notes. 

I used the join as you go method to make this blanket.  Twilight taggers has a video tutorial for this which you can find here  it might take you a couple of go's to get used to this method but I find it so much easier than having squillions of balls attached and all the ends that you get when you literally work from one corner to the other on a graphgan (I take my hat off to makers that do this because it is hard work!)

The blanket is 12 squares made individually.  I started with a 4 cluster square and then built on this rotating round with each new colour following my picture pattern. 

Once I'd made a couple of 9 price squares that were next to each other I sewed them together rather than crocheting join as you go.  This was mainly because I didn't want to be trying to handle a large blanket and turning it as I knew it was going to end up pretty large.  I tried to colour match the sewing up yarn wherever possible.

For the border I did a rotating rainbow in linen stitch.  By rotating rainbow I mean that I started in yellow on the edge which was orange then went to orange for another section, then red, then purple and so on. When I got back to the start I used red where I'd previously used orange and then swapped to purple when I reached the red section etc etc.  It means that as you go around the blanket each side is different and the order or colours is different.

I used a 6mm hook for the main blanket and the border. My tension is tight and I didn't want a cardboard like texture!  I once made a cardigan for a friends baby boy and the poor love couldn't bend his arms it was so stiff!

The yarns I used were a mixture of stylecraft special dk and bonus hayfield. They are all around £2 a ball  which is excellent value and I used 2 balls of each for the whole blanket.  I've got a little leftover.

Stylecraft yarns were jaffa, sunshine, grass green, tomato.

Bonus Hayfield were purple, azure and denim.

These colours worked really well to create a bold and bright blanket. 

Once I'd finished the border I sewed in all the ends (I never sew as I go because I prefer a giant sewing up session at the end.) I can't be doing with taking scissors out and putting them away again over and over again and if Melie got hold of my scissors she'd probably either attempt to cut her own hair or my sofa!

I love the bright colours in this blanket and I'm really pleased with the final finish.  The girls love it and I can see it being a firm favourite for years to come!

If you have a go at making a blanket like this then please let me know and tag me on Instagram as I'd love to see!  I'm planning to make a larger log cabin style square with my sample square, baby blanket size this time though!