Tonal Color Block Blanket

It’s windy.

And it snowed.  (Yay!)

I finished a blanket.

Like I said, it’s pretty windy.

Dark, too.  December in the North.

And that’s when my teeth started chattering.  Let’s go inside.


This blanket was born purely of my personal need to have something to knit that I didn’t have to look at so I could watch Christmas movies.  Tim Allen!  I love you! 
I wanted to work with color, but didn’t feel like doing a lot of thinking or planning or math-ing.  I thought I could just choose two skeins of worsted weight yarn in colors that looked good together and work stripes in stockinette until they ran out.  Then I’d choose the next two colors and do the same thing, and keep doing that until there was a blanket, working in a leisurely fashion over the course of the long dark season, with the comfort of knitting always at hand and cozily across my lap.  What I did instead is choose all eighteen colors in one trip to the yarn store and then race to finish it like I was being chased.  I suppose that is my way.  So here it is already. 

Beginning with the red and deep pink pairing, I cast 100 stitches on a US 7 circular needle and worked eighteen total stripes of eight rows each in stockinette stitch, breaking the yarn at each color change and weaving the ends in at the back as I went to save (a lot of) aggravation at the end.  I made three color blocks per panel, and three panels total.  I even—are you ready for this?—kept track of which yarns I used.  So I can tell you that, for once.  Here’s the list:
Patons Classic Wool Worsted #00230 “Bright Red”
Patons Classic Wool Worsted #77531 “Currant”
Berroco Vintage #5120 (turquoise)
Patons Classic Wool Worsted #77219 “Seafoam”
Berroco Vintage #5121 (gold)
Berroco Vintage #5111 (butter)
Ella Rae Classic #19 (light purple)
Ella Rae Classic #157 (lilac heather)
Patons Classic Wool Worsted #77223 “Lemongrass”
Vanna’s Choice #170 “Pea Green”
Plymouth Galway #169 (light peach)
Plymouth Galway #67 (orange)
Plymouth Galway #170 (pale pink)
Ella Rae Classic #54 (medium pink)
Berroco Vintage # 5167 (wine)
Ella Rae Classic #43 (fuschia)
Plymouth Galway #187 (faded denim)
Berroco Vintabge #5117 (medium denim)

For the single crochet and picot border, I used Patons Classic “Winter White”, Ella Rae Classic 03 (tan) and Plymouth Galway #172 (light blue) and a second ball of Plymouth Galway #170 and Patons Classic “Lemongrass”.

That edge curled up like a cinnamon roll until I gave it a big blast with the steam iron and showed it who was boss. 

A cozy new blanket, just in time.  Brr. 

[edit:  Somebody asked about how this is pieced together and I totally lost the email, so I'll add that info here--this was knit in three big strips, with only two long seams joining them in the middle.  I started with the red/deep pink pairing and when that yarn ran out, I just joined in the first blue and kept going.  At the end of that strip, after the purple section, I bound it off and set it aside, and cast on for the yellow pairing, and so on.  When I had three long, wide strips, I sewed them together using mattress stitch and then added the edging.  Then I steam-blocked the edges (a LOT; this thing really wanted to curl up) and steamed the sewn seams to make them lie nice and flat.  That's it!  Thank you for your question.  :) ]