Destash #1 - Sirdar Spree Chunky

My first destash project uses Sirdar Spree Chunky, a cotton mix of candy colours (60% cotton 40% acrylic).  I have made a preemie baby blanket.

Here's my review of the yarn, after knitting with it for the first time:
Good points: Lovely and soft when knitted up. Colours look pretty too when knitted up, nicer than I expected, although he creamy white colour just looks a little like a dirty white.  Cheap (69p)
Bad points: Splits like crazy. It's a little heavy and loose when knitted up - I wouldn't like to make a jumper in it, I imagine it would hang pretty badly and fall out of shape. I'm dreading washing my little blanket in case it loses it's shape.

Initially, I wasn't sure what to make with this. I searched Ravelry for pattern ideas, but absolutely nothing grabbed me. So, I decided to knit a preemie blanket. 100g isn't quite enough I don't think, so I will have to edge it to make it bigger, maybe with some white yarn from my stash (two balls in one project can't be bad eh?).

First, I started to crochet the blanket, but it splits terribly and I got really frustrated. So I frogged it and started to knit instead. It still splits with knitting, but not as much. I decided to knit a blanket starting at one corner and increasing on every alternate row and until I'd used approx half the ball (I kept weighing it until there were 50g left). Then I decreased on every alternate row. Here's the instructions for anyone who wants to knit a really quick and simple preemie blanket. It took me about 3 hours, and because it using only garter st, I was able to watch TV too.

Using the needle size recommended on your ball band.Cast on 2 sts.

Row 1: kfb in each st

Row 2: sl 1, k to end

Row 3: sl 1, kfb, kfb, k1

Row 4: sl 1, k to end

Row 5: sl 1, kfb, k to last 2 sts, kfb, k1

Row 6: sl 1, k to end

Repeat Rows 5 and 6 until half the yarn has been used (use scales to weigh your ball of yarn) finishing on a Row 6

Next Row: sl 1, k2tog, k to last 3 sts, k2tog, k1

Next Row: s1 1, k to end

Repeat last two Rows until 4 sts remain

Next Row: k2tog, k2tog, pass 1st st over 2nd st. Pull yarn end though the st and tie off.

With this 100g ball of chunky yarn, I made a square of approx 33cm, which isn't big enough for a preemie blanket. So in my next blog post I will show you how to crochet an edge around the blanket to make it bigger. Here's a photo of this first stage, with a crocheted double crochet border - to be explained in my next post.