MomQueenBee commented on my pandemic blanket a few days ago, so this is a post about how to make your own. Take a big pile of worsted-weight leftovers in colors that make you happy. You can also combine sportweight or DK with a strand of fingering if you want more variety, or you can throw in some Aran-weight yarn too. It's flexible.
Start with a mitered square. Cast on 51 stitches (I recommend a long-tail cast-on) and knit back. Knit 24, S2KP, knit 24; turn and knit back. On the next row you'll knit 23, S2KP, knit 23; turn and knit back. On every right-side row, you'll decrease across the three middle stitches. When you're down to one stitch, break the yarn and pull it through the stitch.
To make another square, you will build on your initial square by picking up an odd number of stitches along one side. Let's say I want my second square to be a little smaller: I can pick up 19 stitches, turn my knitting around, and use the cable cast-on to add an additional 18 stitches. After I knit back to my starting point I'll do just the same thing as before, decreasing across the three middle stitches on every right-side row. If I want my decrease line to point in the opposite direction, I can use long-tail cast-on to create my 18 new stitches before I pick up 19 from the existing square. Flexible! So flexible!
You can also make a mitered rectangle; just bind off your leftover stitches after you have consumed all the stitches on the shorter side. In the picture above, I am knitting a mitered rectangle. Here, I'll add in a close-up so you can see for yourself. In just a couple of ridges, I will have decreased all the stitches on the right side of the decrease line. I'll stop there, and bind off the rest. It will be easier to pick up the next whack of stitches if you use a larger needle for the bind-off. You can make squares or stripes without the diagonal decrease line if you would like to do so: just work plain garter ridges. Combine shapes that please you with colors that please you until your blanket is a size that pleases you. I think I will work a crochet edging because my brain might wither and crumble into dust if I tried to do that many feet of applied I-cord.
This post at MDK contains the picture that inspired me, and if the loosey-goosey-ness of these instructions makes you unhappy, you might find some of Kay and Ann's patterns to be a soothing alternative. Their first book has a couple of different garter stitch blankets with more structured patterns, and they have reworked some of those ideas in their more recent publications. Happy knitting!
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