Secret squares
This is the 4th blanket for a pregnant coworker in 15 months. Unlike the various gifts for staff at the yarn shop, I'm in charge of these at the office, and I've finally got the process down. For details, read on. I'll talk more about the twin blankies and their home-grown patterns in a future post.
The first two "squares" blankies were knitted in Rowan Cashsoft DK, which was wonderfully soft and has beautiful colors. However, once I made the leap over to Nashua Creative Focus Superwash worsted (50% generic wool, 50% merino wool), I found the more consistent gauge of my knitters very helpful and won't go back to Cashsoft with this group of knitters. I would still recommend it for one-knitter projects and those with sensitive skin; it's soft and stretchy and has great yardage.
This blanket contains 30 6"x6" squares and measures about 30" x 34". (I just measured *very* quickly in case the recipient were to walk by.) We used 6 skeins of the CF Superwash at 220 yards/ball, with plenty left over to make at least one hat (but I haven't tried yet). About 1200 yards should get you there with a little breathing room and plenty of yarn for seaming.
To create the squares: Cast on 30 stitches with a size 7 needle (adjust as necessary to get gauge, slightly under 6” wide). Knit in pattern until square (6” wide by 6” tall) and bind off. Repeat! Below are the stitch patterns I provided my knitters; a few were brave and armed with stitch books and branched out. My only limitation was "knit and purl patterns only, preferably geometric" -- no cables or lace. That helped keep it simple, with great results.
To join the squares: Crochet them together with slip stitch. Watch my video tutorial for help. So much faster than seaming, and you can weave in ends as you go. Please note, I use what's called a "slip stitch" in US crochet terms to join the squares with a minimum of bulk; I think I call it "single crochet" in the video.
Optional backing & tying: Use one yard of 100% cotton flannel. Lay out the flannel on a table/floor as for a quilt backing. Lay your knitted blanket on that and cut around, leaving about 2 to 3 inches of extra flannel. Pin it together all around the edges (this helps immensely) and using a sharper yarn needle, tie it up at the square corners. Do this by taking a long length of yarn (I usually go with the lightest color used in the blanket), dip from the top of the blanket down through the flannel, and come back up 1/2" or so away (so you're crossing a corner diagonally), pulling your yarn nearly to the end so about a 3" tail is on top where you started, and the long string of yarn is coming out the other side. Tie a square knot and snip the yarn to about 2-3" (you can always trim later, so my first few are always on the long side). Repeat for all the inner corners.
Now pin down the flannel, folding over to make your binding. This is probably the trickiest part because flannel is soft and hard to crease up, but pins help. You need to fold in the raw edge, then fold over that nice bit onto the blanket and pin through all layers. I haven't tried it, but it might help to start by pinning the middle of every side, then move out to the corners. At the corners, you'll need to fold in the point (like dog-earing a book; it'll look like a triangle folded in, and your corner will be flat along the edge) so that when you fold up the binding, you'll get a nice mitered corner. This takes a few tries for me; the more pins you can use to hold everything in place, the easier sewing up will be.
Finally, you'll pick up the whole thing, find a comfortable place to sit, a nice sharp little needle and matching thread, and stitch through all the layers right along the edge of the binding. (This time I had a pincushion handy for pulling out and/or rearranging pins as I went.) When you get to a corner, go up the corner and blind stitch the miters together. Bury the knot and start again until you've gone all around.
Now that I type this up, I realize there are a lot of steps I could demonstrate with the camera. I'll alert you when someone else gets pregnant and it's knitting time again. :)
Garter stitch: Knit every row.
Stockinette stitch: Row 1: K. Row 2: P.
Seed stitch: Row 1: K1, P1 across. Row 2: K1, P1 across.
Ribbing: Row 1: K2, P2 across. Row 2: P2, K2 across.
Mistake Rib: Row 1: K1, P1 across. Row 2: K across. (simple and gorgeous!)
Horizontal ribbing: Row 1 (RS): K. Row 2: P. Row 3: K. Row 4: P. Row 5: P. Row 6: K. Row 7: P. Row 8: K. Start over at row 1 and repeat.
Polperro laughing boy
Row 1: (WS) P
Row 2: K
Row 3: P2, K2, *P4, K2* to last 2 sts, P2
Row 4: K
Row 5: P2, K2, *P4, K2* to last 2 sts, P2
Row 6: K
Row 7: P
Row 8: K
Hurdler stitch
Rows 1 & 2: Knit
Rows 3 & 4: K1, P1 across