Moderne Log Cabin blanket

I was intrigued when I came across log cabin knitting in the Mason Dixon Knitting book.  Achieving a traditional patchwork log cabin look would require fastening a lot of ends, and that put me off.  The pattern for the block I tried was rectangular and that threw me too.  Now I realise its convenience for blankets which tend to be rectangular and here the same number of blocks in rows and columns simplifies things.

I really liked the look of the Moderne Log Cabin pattern, the sleek look, the colours, the simplicity.  But it would be difficult to achieve with the variety of yarns that I had.  You would need yarn in the same brand in carefully chosen shades.  And, as pictures in Ravelry show, an even tension.  So I decided to use my standard three shade one row pattern.

First I had to upscale the pattern to achieve my standard size for blankets, larger than the pattern.  This involved knitting a tension square and adjusting for my tension.  That was interesting, and the plan I ended up with looked reasonable.









I chose the following yarns:

First an alpaca yarn unravelled from this Nicole Farhi cardigan knitted in an intricate lace cable pattern.  It was fun unravelling.  The yarn is beautiful and a pleasure to knit.  It turned out to be thinner than DK so I added a strand of a 4 ply brown wool.

The second yarn was Rowan Tapestry yarn unravelled from two charity shops projects.  One was a completed sweater and the second parts for an unfinished sweater.  The purpose of this yarn was to add interest because of the changing colour, but it was hardly noticeable in knitting, and the light sections jar in places.  I decided which blocks should use which shades, but you don't notice that either in the finished blanket.

The third yarn was some old Jaeger Matchmaker DK pure wool.  There was enough blue, so I didn't use the mauve.  I have always liked the brown blue colour combination.

Then I cast on, and started knitting casting on the number of stitches calculated in my plan.  The problem came after picking up stitches for the second block.  My garter stitch tension does not work as it should.  One stitch does not equal two rows.  The second block came out too wide.  I thought it was a fixed rule that in garter stitch one stitch equals two rows.  For me it doesn't.  I haven't noticed it earlier because it hasn't mattered, or, as in mitred squares, it has been fewer stitches.  Here it mattered.  I solved it by picking up one stitch per ridge, as usual, and in the first row did k8 k2tog.  That worked and won't show at a casual glance.

Perhaps it is my tension.  I selected needles, 4mm, that would suit the yarns best.  I am not going to swatch to get the tension according to the pattern, because what do you do when you can't get there after trying four five sets of needles?

This was going to be my project for picking up when I needed easy in between knitting and I was in no hurry.  It took even longer because of the time and effort it took to interpret my plan every time I came to a new block.  Otherwise I enjoyed the knitting.  Towards the end I abandoned the plan, and did what was easiest.  It had taken such a long time, it was a relief when it came to an end.  I did my usual border, pick up stitches, a three row garter stich border, crochet cast off.

I like the look and the feel of the blanket.  It is warm, heavy.  The colours are restful.  The difference in weight gave additional texture to the garter stitch, and the alpaca and Tapestry are so nice.  The join between the blocks does look clumsy in places.  Overall I am happy with it.

Moderne Log Cabin blanket

Pattern: Mason Dixon Knitting
Yarn: unravelled alpaca, 4 ply wool, Rowan Tapestry, Jaeger Matchmaker DK
Needles: 4.0mm Size: 125 cm by 170 cm
Weight: 1490 gr 
Knitted: 4 November 2015 to 22 December 2018