Blanket Yarn
Yarns that grow fast and wash easy — chunky #5–#6 chenille for cloud-soft throws and workhorse #4 acrylics for granny-square blankets.
Chenille or acrylic for your blanket?
They make two different blankets. The Cloud-Soft chenilles (#5 bulky and #6 super bulky) make the plush, hotel-throw kind — deep pile, big stitches, fastest progress of anything we sell. Shimmie (#6) does the same with a thread of sparkle for holiday throws. The Premium Acrylic 8-Plys (solid and variegated, #4) make the heirloom kind — crisp stitch definition for granny squares, ripples and colorwork, with the variegated colorways shifting color on their own — no yarn changes needed.
Can you machine wash a blanket made from this yarn?
Three of the five, yes. The Premium Acrylic 8-Plys are machine washable, and Shimmie takes a machine wash up to 30°C — lay both flat to dry. For the Cloud-Soft chenilles we recommend hand washing in cool water and drying flat in the shade. The pile survives a machine, but agitation is what encourages it to shed and worm over time, so hand washing is what keeps a chenille blanket looking new for years rather than seasons. If the blanket is headed for a sofa that gets washed most weeks, the acrylics are the easier life.
How many skeins do you need for a blanket?
Running out partway is the most common reason a blanket goes unfinished, so estimate before you order rather than after. Each product page lists per-skein weight and yardage — check those against your pattern's total and round up a skein, since shades are dyed in batches and buying together keeps colors matched. Stitch choice moves the number more than anything else: a dense single crochet can use a third more yarn than an open, airy stitch over the same area, and border rounds add to it again.
Planning a blanket? How many skeins for a blanket, by size.