Joyful June Sunburst Blanket

These Sunburst Granny Squares have certainly brightened up a grey start to the June weather here in the UK!  Read on for the recipe so you can make one too.....

Yet another stash-buster of mine, I wanted to make something with some bright and cheery colours to bring a little sunshine to what had been a very grey and damp start to June. 

I used a dot mandala painting I had made as inspiration for the colours for my project, and these shades from Sirdar in their Hayfield Bonus DK range jumped out at me from my yarn stash. I added in a leftover skein of Paintbox Dusty Lilac and I think they look lovely together!  Although this was a stash-buster, I didn’t have enough yarn for joining (of course!) so I bought a few skeins of my favourite pale cream yarn for this, which is also from the Hayfield Bonus DK range.

Yarn:

Sirdar Hayfield Bonus DK – 1 x 100g of each colour:

• Lagoon Blue

• Cornflower

• Deep Rose

• Cream – 4 x 100g skeins (this is one of my favourite creams yarns – it’s great for when you don’t want a bright white but you also don’t want a yellowy cream colour)
  

Paintbox Yarns Simply DK – 1 x 100g:

• Dusty Lilac

Hook:

4mm (G/6 size in US)

Squares:

• Sunburst Granny Squares - you'll find lots of tutorials on YouTube for these

• 36 squares in total – 18 plain and 18 mixed colour rounds

• Squaring off round in cream for all squares

Joining Method and Layout:

• Continuous Join As You Go in Cream

• 6 squares x 6 squares

I alternated the plain and mixed squares and tried to evenly place the colours, then joined with CJAYG method. You can find lots of brilliant tutorials for ‘Continuous Join As You Go’ by other makers on YouTube if you search. (Please note this method is different to ‘Join As You Go’ where you join each square together as you are making them.)

Border:

I wanted a big border to frame the centre squares so I continued in rounds of granny cluster stitches. Adding lots of rounds of granny clusters (or other stitches like v-stitch or block stitch) is a great way to grow your blanket without having to make too many individual squares, and you can still keep it interesting by changing up the colours. (Note – I flip my work over and crochet on the opposite side after each round which helps keep it nice and square).

This is the order and number of rounds I crocheted for the border:

• 1 x round of cream

• 1 x round of each colour (lagoon, cornflower, lilac, pink)

• 8 x rounds of cream

• 1 x rounds of each colour (I did this set in reverse order to the first set – pink, lilac, cornflower, lagoon)

• 1 x round of cream
  

I wanted my final border round to pop but not be too fussy. I’d used up all my cream yarn so used some more pink yarn to finish:

• 1 x round of Double Crochet in UK Terms or Single Crochet in US terms

• 1 round of bobble stitches (worked on the wrong side of the blanket so they pop towards the right side)

My finished blanket measures approx. 43 x 43 inches. 

You could make this blanket in any yarn brand or weight, just adjust your hook size and yarn quantities accordingly, and note the finished size will be different.

Hopefully this has inspired you to make your own Joyful June Blanket!  I’d love to see your makes, tag me on Instagram @harrietsduck and use the hashtag #joyfuljuneblanket

Kate x