Pick your Yarn.

I still haven’t got round to sorting the stash. My latest project did not turn out as planned because I really should have learnt to pick a yarn which is suitable for my project. I have been religiously stash busting but because I still haven’t organised the stash and I knew that to properly stash shop, I would need to at least begin organising the stash, I decided to work with whatever came out of the cupboard first for my next project. I opened on my door a fraction and several balls of Hayfield Spirit made a bid for freedom by landing on my head. Perfect, I could make a blanket it would be nice and simple. This was an added bonus as I had a cross country trip coming up and I can only knit simple things in the car. If I start anything complex I will begin to feel ill rather quickly. 

I decided to make a variation on the log cabin style blanket where I would knit the pieces in scarf size strips and then join them together in decreasing L shapes to make a simple geometric blanket. This meant each piece would be portable when knitted, perfect for many hours of car knitting. The yarn knits up beautifully and it has made a wonderfully soft blanket the only problem is the clean geometric pattern I had in my head is completely invisible as the self-striping yarn draws the eye. This means that instead of a geometric pattern it looks like a slightly crazy version of patchwork made by someone who cannot decide on a colour palette. The yarn is great, the design was great, the knitting was great. The final product was not what I was going for. I think it may need to be reknit in a completely plain yarn, but right now I cannot face it. So in denial, I will look for a worthy cause, where someone is in such need of a warm blanket that they can use it and forgive my excursions into colour and I’m planning on avoiding self-striping yarns for a while the habit is broken. 

Felicity
Geometric Blanket Pattern The blanket is knitted in several pieces for all except the largest piece you will need to make two to ensure you have the correct layout. Yarn is Hayfield Spirit Chunky in shade Zest 0400. 

Piece 1 
Cast on 30 stitches. 
Work in moss stitch for 4 rows 
Row 5: P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K20, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1 
Row 6: P1, K1, P1, K1, P22, K1, P1, K1, P1 
Repeat these rows until the piece measures 39 inches. 
Work 4 rows of moss stitch 
Cast off and bind ends. 

Piece 2 
Work this piece twice. 
Cast on 30 stitches. 
Work in moss stitch for 4 rows 
Row 5: P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K20, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1 
Row 6: P1, K1, P1, K1, P22, K1, P1, K1, P1 
Repeat these rows until the piece measures 29 inches. 
Work 4 rows of moss stitch 
Cast off and bind ends. 

Piece 3 
Work this piece twice. 
Cast on 30 stitches. 
Work in moss stitch for 4 rows 
Row 5: P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K20, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1 
Row 6: P1, K1, P1, K1, P22, K1, P1, K1, P1 
Repeat these rows until the piece measures 19 inches. 
Work 4 rows of moss stitch 
Cast off and bind ends. 

 Piece 4 
Work this piece twice. 
Cast on 30 stitches. 
Work in moss stitch for 4 rows 
Row 5: P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K20, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1 
Row 6: P1, K1, P1, K1, P22, K1, P1, K1, P1 
Repeat these rows until the piece measures 9 inches. 
Work 4 rows of moss stitch 
Cast off and bind ends. 

 Lay out the pieces according to the schematic below and sew all pieces together.

Comments

  1. Sande FrancisMay 10, 2021 at 5:21 PM

    This is a great take on the Log Cabin style blanket. I'm thinking I just might do this by picking up sts along the edges of the existing pieces. I can do it starting with the smaller or the larger pieces. Did you have a color scheme in mind when you were thinking of this? One color or many?

    ReplyDelete
  2. FeliciPageMay 11, 2021 at 5:46 AM

    Hi Sande,
    Thanks for commenting! I'm not a fan of picking up hundreds of stitches and I like portable projects, hence this design, but you certainly could do it that way. I think you would need to pick up 100-160 stitches so I would definitely recommend a circular needle. As for yarn, I have some Stylecraft softie in a burgundy in the stash that I was thinking of repeating this with, although in my head the blanket pattern would also look good in blue.
    Let me know how you get on!!!
    Felicity

    ReplyDelete

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