Rowan Tapestry Mitred Squares Blanket C20

It started with the yarn which I bought in a charity shop, nearly four years ago.  I had already knitted a sweater with it, and I knew I liked it.  There were two blue shades, Sh 175 and Sh 177, both in blue, but one with a section with a brown tint.  There was enough for a full sized blanket, and over time I decided I would knit a pattern that had interested me for a while, mitred squares.

I spent some time working out the design - how to use the two shades, and how to arrange the squares.  Patterns only tell you how to do things; not why you can't do something else, so I worked out for myself that it was not possible to do a block of four squares with the mitres meeting in the middle, or facing outwards for that matter, if you want to join the squares by picking up stitches and not breaking the yarn.

I did decide to start in the middle, and that meant that I picked up stitches along a cast on edge.  It was slightly trickier than picking up from garter stitch ridges.  And working to the right I had to pick up stitches from the reverse side.  It was fine, when I got used to it.

Another thing I learnt was cable cast on, and I got a lot of practice.  I had tried it before, and I didn't like it because it is not as stretchy as my usual cast on, and I had to make an effort not to make it too tight.  It worked.

I was pleased with my design.  I had just enough of both shades for it to work, and there was enough of the brownish shade to do a narrow garter stitch border.  It was very enjoyable knitting, and I could do it watching television.  The blanket is just the right size, and there is something very comfortable about a garter stitch blanket.  My knitting is far some perfect.  In a pattern like this, and in this yarn, any unevenness will show.





The yarn is nice and soft.  I made no attempt to match shades when I joined a new ball, partly because I didn't have too much yarn.  There were, to my mind, too many knots in the yarn, and shades hadn't been matched there either.  In some seven eight balls an extra 5 gr or so of yarn had been tied to the outside end and stuffed into the middle.  Had these been marked as seconds - they should have been.  In a couple of balls the yarn was unevenly thick and thin, with some extremely thick sections.  I included them.  I still like the yarn very much, and there is more in the yarn store.


Rowan Tapestry Mitred Squares Blanket C20
Rowan Tapestry, wool 70% soya bean protein 30%, DK weight
size 4.0 mm needles
185 cm by 145 cm, 1460 gr
Knitted 28 November 2014 to 1 April 2015