Gemma Blanket

Pattern also available as a downloadable pdf for purchase on Ravelry.

Caron. Cake. MANIA.

Oh my gosh, y'all. It's crazy! And I HAD to take advantage of it.

Once I finally managed to get my hands on the colors I wanted (I'll belabor the misery of having a tiny Michaels store at a later time) I set to work on a pair of blankets in a pattern that I designed ages ago. I never really gave much thought to publishing it because it was such a simple thing. Really just a modified granny square. But this yarn brought a fun new element to it and suddenly I was excited to see what I could do with it!

Made with 2 Caron Cakes in Lemon Lime and 2 skeins Caron Simply Soft Party in Fuchsia Sparkle, approx 35"

Made with 7 skeins Caron Simply Soft Party in Black Sparkle and 1 Caron Cake in Rainbow Sprinkles, approx 43"

The problem is that now I want to try the bumbleberry cake with some silver. And the faerie cake with a fun orange. And buttercream with gold! Or maybe the boston cream cake. Or faerie with silver. Or blueberry cheesecake with orange! I want to try them ALL!!!

All right, I sound like a maniac now. I know. A fiber arts loving maniac. That's not so bad, is it? I'll just keep telling myself that...

But let's talk for a second about WHY this yarn has been such a trendy hit. Yeah you could easily change your own colors. In fact, in this blanket some might prefer it that way. But what Caron has given us in these scrumptious little yarn cakes is warm, squishy convenience. The colors are already chosen for us. Even the amount of each color. Do you want to change colors after two rows or three? Or maybe only one? How is that going to pair up with the next color? Is it the right shade? Maybe the lighter blue would be better. Or perhaps teal? Wait, HOW many colors of blue do I have!?

Color, shade, color weight, color combination - the options are literally endless. And some of us simply don't have color intuition. Well with Caron cakes you don't have to! They've collected colors into 18 yummy little bundles of you-don't-have-to-think-about-it. You just have to crochet! Or knit, if that's your poison.

One of the most exciting things about this yarn are the LONG segments of color. A lot of variegated yarns have short, quick color changes, which often just looks muddled if you don't find the right pattern to showcase the yarn. With yarns like this, we see actual stripes of color, which can be a really fun element, particularly for all the lazy stitchers in the world, like myself, who like the variety of different colors in one project but don't like all the extra work. O.o Why aren't there more yarns like this out there? Beats the soup out of me.

Different cakes start with different colors so even if two people make the same project, they might look completely different because of the color they started with. Which makes every single caron cake project unique.

And bonus? Fewer ends to weave in!

Well, maybe not with this blank