Another blanket...kind of

I have been very excited about this project. I've been working on it for a couple of months off and on in my spare time. I finally finished sewing all the pieces together and adding the edging this week. 

This was my pinspiration for this piece. Which led to this very simple Lion Brand pattern. I love simple patterns. They are, by far, the best :)

This is my version of the pattern, and the one I worked off of. Each color was made into one large circle, 2 medium circles and 4 small circles. I did this for all 8 colors. Because this was a scrap blanket, not all of the colors exactly match the colors I had planned in my pattern.

If you saw my previous post about flower hat then you know I recommended the magic circle as a good way to start working rounds. I have to admit I'm a little new to using the magic circle, and was awestruck at how easy it was to learn and how beautiful it made my projects (I love not having that little hole).

This is how the start of my circles looked with the magic circle. Very tight and no ugly hole in the middle.

So, I used it to start all of my circles for this circles-to-squares project.

Except that, again, I used what was basically a metric ton of leftover yarn from other projects. Most of it being the cheapie red heart supersaver. Of course I tried my previous strategy of washing the project with fabric softener afterwards. This time it took three washes (on the gentle cycle of course) before the yarn became soft...which was not so good on my circles that I started with the magic circle.

Because this is how about half of the circles came out of the wash. :( :( :(

The magic circle blew out, leaving a ring of unattached stitches. I guess I'm going to have to use a needle and thread to tie these back into their original ring and repeat for each messed up piece. I'm pretty bummed about it.

Other than that, the scraps blanket has a kind of neat 70s retro feel (it definitely looks like something that would come out of the closet at my grandma' house)

These pictures are literally right out of the washing machine and onto the bed. The circles are all lumpy because they are still a touch damp (the hubs wasn't exactly thrilled that I layed the damp blanket out on our bed...oops haha).

So, all in all, it needs some work. I wouldn't call it a failed project yet. But it is definitely one I am frustrated with. I will post update pictures when I finish it and make it look much better, haha.