Charm Blanket

Inspired by the riotously colorful aesthetic of classic yo-yo quilts, our Charm Blanket pattern pieces together our 40-Color Linen Quill Minis Bundle into an artful patchwork of handmade joy. Brimming with the surprise and variety of a beloved scrap pile, these Minis are such an exciting way to play with the glorious colors of our most popular yarn!

Made with yarn rather than fabric, these yo-yos are small octagons of brilliant color, knit in garter stitch with your yarn held double. You join each one to its neighbors and weave in ends as you go, using a simple method described in the pattern to keep the open spaces between octagons nice and tidy.

We landed on our delightfully serendipitous color order by putting our trust in chance and the harmony of Linen Quill’s palette. We invite you to create your own unique Charm Blanket in the same way, by drawing each Mini at random from a bag and discovering that every combination is a beautiful one. A Golden Green yo-yo next to luminous Magnolia Blossom? Amazing! Tart Lemon Lime followed by earthy Kiln Red? Magnificent!

Linen Quill gets its delightful springiness and durability from fine highland wool, its lovely long-fiber softness from alpaca, and its gentle rusticity from the linen… Only 15% of the content, but it makes itself known! The linen also takes dye differently than the wool and alpaca fibers, giving each shade rich depth and dimension. Linen Quill feels wonderful in your hands and drapes beautifully, and knitting with this fingering-weight yarn held double means your Charm Blanket will work up faster than you think.

Pick up a 40-Color Linen Quill Minis Bundle for your own Charm Blanket, and watch as every color finds its home. Create a truly astonishing heirloom, and along the way, have the most knitting fun you’ve ever had!

Yarn lovers, if you adore the yarn used in this project, you’ll love exploring all of our other yarn collections! Discover over 45 thoughtfully designed yarns in nearly every natural fiber and in every spectacular color you can imagine. Only available here at Purl Soho’s online yarn store, where every skein is created with care and your creativity in mind!

Pattern designed and written by Purl Soho designer, Hiromi Glover. See even more of Hiromi’s work on her Instagram!

Story written by Andrea Lotz for Purl Soho.

Want to print this pattern? On desktop, find the “print” icon in the right margin, and on mobile, scroll to the end of the pattern for it. Use the on-screen instructions to remove anything you don’t want to print!

Materials

• 1 40-Color bundle of Purl Soho’s Linen Quill Minis, 50% fine highland wool, 35% alpaca, and 15% linen. Each bundle of this fingering-weight yarn is 4,360 yards/ 1,000 grams; approximately 16 yards required per octagon; 3,070 total yards required.
• US 8 (5 mm), 16- or 24-inch circular knitting needles
• A crochet hook, size H (5 mm) or smaller
• Optional: Blocking pins

GAUGE

19 stitches and 38 rows (19 ridges) = 4 inches in garter stitch with yarn doubled

SIZE

Finished Dimensions: 36 inches wide x 48 inches tall

Each Finished Octagon: 3 inches wide x 3 inches tall

NOTE: Our Charm Blanket uses 192 octagons and is 12 octagons wide x 16 octagons tall, but with one 40-Color bundle of Linen Quill Minis, you can make up to 240 octagons and an even bigger blanket than ours. If you want, make yours 14 octagons wide x 17 octagons tall for a finished measurement of 42 x 51 inches!

NOTES

RANDOM COLOR ORDER

Grab two vessels (we used paper bags) and place all 40 colors into one bag. Now, close your eyes and select one color from the bag, completely at random. After using that color, place it into the second bag. Repeat this process until all 40 colors have been used and transferred, then do it all again until your blanket is complete. You will use all 40 colors at least 4 times, and 32 colors will be used 5 times.

HOLDING YARN DOUBLE

You will hold two strands of yarn together throughout, pulling one strand from the inside of the ball and one strand from the outside.

SLIP STITCHES

Slip all slipped stitches knitwise with yarn in back (wyib).

GARTER RIDGE

A “garter ridge” equals two rows of garter stitch. It looks like a prominent horizontal ridge and is an easy way to count rows!

WEAVING IN ENDS AS YOU GO

NOTE: Because this technique is worked over just 6 stitches in this pattern, it works best with toothy, non-superwash, animal-fiber yarns. These fibers will stick fairly quickly to each other through friction and hold in place. If you’re using a superwash, plant-based, or synthetic yarn for this project, instead of weaving in ends as you go, we recommend leaving longer tails and weaving them in as normal (note that technique this requires slightly more yarn).

If you are using Linen Quill Minis (or another toothy, non-superwash, animal-fiber yarn), to spare yourself weaving in dozens and dozens of tails, we recommend weaving them in every time you join a new color. Here’s how…

Knit the first stitch with the new color, then bring the tails of the new and old colors over the working yarn at the wrong side of the work, and knit the next stitch with the new color. Bring the tails over the working yarn before working each remaining stitch of the row, including the 2 stitches of the knit front and back (kfb).

PATTERN

COLUMN 1

OCTAGON A

With any color of Linen Quill Mini (see Notes) and holding yarn double (see Notes), cast on 7 stitches. We used a basic Long Tail Cast On.

Row 1 (wrong side): Slip 1, knit to last 2 stitches, knit front and back (kfb), k1. [1 stitch increased]

Rows 2–7: Repeat Row 1 six more times, ending with a wrong-side row. [14 stitches; 4 garter ridges (see Notes) on right side]

Row 8 (right side): Slip 1, knit to end of row.

Rows 9–19: Repeat Row 8 eleven more times, ending with a wrong-side row. [10 garter ridges on right side]

Row 20 (right side): Slip 1, knit to last 3 stitches, knit 2 together (k2tog), k1. [1 stitch decreased]

Rows 21–27: Repeat Row 20 seven more times, ending with a wrong-side row. [6 stitches remain; 14 garter ridges on right side]

Cut yarn, leaving a 3-inch tail.

OCTAGON B

With right side facing you, join a new color.

Set- Up Row (right side): Weaving in tails as you go (see Notes), knit to last 2 stitches, kfb, k1.

Work as for Octagon A, starting with Row 1.

CONTINUE

Repeat Octagon B thirteen more times. [15 total octagons in column]

OCTAGON C

Work as for Octagon B, but do not cut yarn.

With right side facing you, bind off knitwise.

Cut yarn, leaving a 3-inch tail.

Set aside.

COLUMN 2

OCTAGON D

NOTE: For help picking up stitches, please visit our Picking Up Stitches Tutorial and scroll down to the Along A Vertical Edge: Garter Stitch, Between Ridges video.

With a new color and holding yarn double, cast on 7 stitches.

Row 1 (wrong side): Slip 1, knit to last 2 stitches, kfb, k1. [1 stitch increased]

Rows 2–7: Repeat Row 1 six more times., ending with a wrong-side row. [14 stitches; 4 garter ridges on right side]

Row 8 (right side): Slip 1, knit to end of row, then pick up and knit 6 stitches along the right vertical selvage of the first Octagon of the previous column, moving from the bottom of the vertical edge to the top and picking up one stitch between each garter ridge. [20 total stitches]

Row 9: K5, k2tog, knit to end of row. [19 stitches remain]

Row 10: Slip 1, k12, k2tog, turn. [1 stitch decreased]

Row 11: Knit to end of row.

Rows 12–17: Repeat Rows 10 and 11 three more times, ending with a wrong-side row. [15 stitches remain]

Row 18: Repeat Row 10. [14 stitches remain]

Row 19: Slip 1, knit to end of row.

Row 20 (right side): Slip 1, knit to last 3 stitches, k2tog, k1. [1 stitch decreased]

Rows 21–27: Repeat Row 20 seven more times, ending with a wrong-side row. [6 stitches remain; 14 garter ridges on right side]

Cut yarn, leaving a 3-inch tail.

OCTAGON E

With right side facing you, join a new color.

Set-Up Row (right side): Weaving in tails as you go, knit to last 2 stitches, kfb, k1.

Work as for Octagon D, starting with Row 1, and on Row 8, picking up along the vertical selvage of the next octagon in the previous column.

CONTINUE

Repeat Octagon E thirteen more times. [15 total octagons in column]

OCTAGON F

Work as for Octagon E, but do not cut yarn.

With right side facing you, bind off knitwise.

Cut yarn, leaving a 3-inch tail.

COLUMNS 3–12

Repeat Column 2 ten more times.

FINISHING

With wrong side facing you, weave in remaining ends, but do not trim tails just yet!

To tidy the ends you wove in as you knit, use a crochet hook to tuck them under the purl bump one row below, as shown above.

Now your tail ends are nice and snug, and you can trim them to about ¼ of an inch from the purl bump.

Gently wet block, using blocking pins as needed to get sharp corners on outermost octagons.   

Share your progress and connect with the community by tagging your pics with #PurlSoho. We can’t wait to see what you make!

Looking for more inspiration? Explore all of our knitting patterns (including tons of free knitting patterns) and knitting tutorials, buy one of our many knitting kits and yarn bundles, and shop for beautiful yarn. We have over 35 gorgeous natural fiber yarns in 100’s of magnificent colors, designed to bring integrity, beauty, and joy to your next knitting project and only available at Purl Soho!