Moody Blanket Pattern

020

Blanket Dimensions

Length 72″/183cm (hopefully)

Width 7.2″/183cm (hopefully)

Materials

2 strands of aran weight yarn are used held together.
You will need approximately 2400 metres of your base yarn and then the same amount again in your chosen combination of yarns.  I am using Sirdar Bonus Aran and Sirdar Bonus Aran Tweed and will need 3 x 400g balls of my base shade 929 and probably 2 x 400g of shades 822 & 817 and 1 x 400g of 994.  (I will have loads left for charity knitting)

You will also need around another 20 to 50 metres (doubled) to work your applied i-cord if doing so at both your cast on and cast off ends.

I also used scrap super chunky yarn for my provisional cast on and a 12mm crochet hook.

8mm Needles

Darning Needle

Tension

12sts x 18rows on 8mm needles with 2 strands of aran weight yarn held together in garter stitch

Abbreviations

k – knit

st(s) – stitch(es)

co – cast on

wyif – with yarn in front

sl – slip next st

sl3 – slip next 3 sts (for applied I-cord)

psso – pass slipped stitch over

K3tog – knit next 3 sts together

Applied I-cord cast off –

*k2, sl 1 k-wise, k1 (this will be 1 of your live sts at the cast off end or from the provisional cast on), psso, sl all 3 sts back onto left needle and rep from* until all sts have been worked.  Three I-cord sts remain on needle, K3tog, break yarn and draw through your final st.

Pattern  

For the i-cord edge you need to use a provisional cast on method and you want 222 sts for the blanket.

I prefer to use the crochet chain provisional cast on, so I chained 228 sts with a 12mm hook and super chunky yarn.

1st row – knit all stitches

For every subsequent row you knit until the last 3 sts, wyif sl3

I’m hoping to knit at least 324 rows or 162 garter stitch ridges. I shall be knitting 2 rows per day.

The I-cord edge is optional. If you are making the blanket without it – using thumb method and holding the 2 strands of yarn together cast on 216 sts and knit every row without slipping the last 3 sts.

If you follow the instructions in Moody Blanket part 1 & 2 you will hopefully end up with a beautiful and personal blanket.

I shall be using an I-cord cast off on my cast on and cast off edges.  Work on your cast off edge first by CO 3 sts using cable cast on method, work I-cord cast off as per instructions above.

Slip cast on sts onto needle and work as for cast off end above.

Sew in your ends, hiding them in the I-cord if you’ve chosen to make it.

This is what my blanket looks like after 2 days

013

Saturday was a good day whilst Monday was just ok.  The red is my provisional cast on yarn.  I shall try to update on the blankets progress weekly.

Happy Knitting!

Moody Blanket – Part 2

If you read Part 1 http://knitmidleton.com/2013/01/07/moody-blanket-part-1/ , you’ll know that I had decided upon 3 shades of Sirdar Bonus Aran to use for my blanket.  Each shade represents my predominant mood of that day.

The 3 shades knitted up
The 3 shades knitted up

The darker shade (top right) represents my OK days.

The lighter shade (top left) represents my good days.

The brighter blue (bottom) represents my very good days.

I will also have to include a colour or 2 for a totally ‘unexpected day’ which will probably be navy for a bloody horrendous day (hope I don’t have any of those) and maybe a baby blue or something else for a truly spectacular day, but it would have to be out of this world, super fantastic to make it into my blanket.

I’m assuming the bulk of my blanket will be made up of the darker and lighter shades as most of my days will probably be OK or good.

Tension next.  The little sample squares above were knitted on 10mm’s and the tension seemed a little on the loose side, especially for a blanket.  So I opted to use 8mm’s instead.

Tension on 8mm
Tension on 8mm

Based on this I was able to calculate that I would need to cast on 216 sts to achieve a blanket that’s approximately 6 foot wide.  It will also take 324 rows or 162 garter stitch ridges to achieve the 6 foot in length that I’d like to achieve (although I might end up making it a little longer).

Ooops – The glaringly obvious problem is it’s not going to take me a year to knit is it?  I would prefer to knit 1 garter stitch ridge or 2 rows per day to keep the blanket the same on both sides.  Nevermind, if it works I shall knit one for each of my 3 children as per their mood, so now I have the next 2 years planned.  Another way of doing the blanket could be to do your mood based on so many days per months, days of the week.

As an added design element  also thought an applied I-Cord edge would tidy up the blanket, whilst providing the ideal place to hide the multiple ends whilst sewing them in.  I’ve used it many times before on blankets and am currently trying to finish my Ravi (designed by Carol Feller) which uses it too.

Applied i-cord
Applied i-cord

To make finishing with the i-cord around all four sides, I decided to use a provisional cast on.  I find it easiest to use a crochet chain and use each chain to knit through.

My very long crochet chain
My very long crochet chain

It’s easier if you use a hook a couple of sizes larger that the needles your going to eventually use and you need to make sure you add a few extra chains just to make it easier to put your stitches up.

I used a 12mm hook (because I didn’t have a 10mm) and some Wendy Serenity Super Chunky that I had left in my stash.  The chain is 228 stitches long which is plenty for the 222 stitches I need.

There are a few more things that I needed to work out before writing the pattern up.

How much yarn will the blanket take? – I can get 30 stitches on my 8mm’s out of a metre of yarn, which means one complete row will take 7.4metres (there about) x 2 because the yarn is worked doubled.  That means the blanket will take at lease 2398 metres of yarn, not allowing for the extra yarn for the applied i-cord at the cast on and cast off edges.
There are 840 metres in each ball of Sirdar Bonus Aran/Aran Tweed so I will need at least 3 x 400g balls in the base shade 929 and there’s no real way to be sure how much I’ll need in each of the ‘mood’ shades.  Based on the size of the balls and my predominate moods I envisage it will be 2 of the lighter and darker shades (817 & 822) and 1 of  the brighter one (994)

I also wanted to time how long it will take to complete a row, so I know I’ll have enough time to do a little each day.  It took me approximately 9 minutes to knit all 222 stitches, but there is no weight or bulk to the knitting yet so I assume it will end up taking much longer as the knitting grows.

Begining my moody blanket
Begining my moody blanket

For the pattern see part 3.