December 12th - How I knit my mitered square blanket

I promised last time to time to tell you more about my mitered squared blanket.  Whenever I have shown it on here I get questions about where the pattern can be found, so today I thought I'd share how I'm knitting mine.

There many different variations on the mitered square blanket, most patterns  are really just a basic recipe so that you can get the idea of how they are constructed.   The one I found on Ravelry is by Martine Ellis, but like I said there are many others out there - mine Is a mash-up of several I came across.

These blankets are often referred to as memory blankets too.  They are great for stash-busting and by using up those scraps of yarn left over from your knitting projects you would eventually end up with something practical and beautiful with lovely memories attached.  

 I'm knitting mine using 4ply yarn and since I haven't knit that many things in 4ply yarn and only this year got into knitting socks, I didn't have and scraps to use up.  That's when I started buying mini skeins to use.  Over the last three years I have amassed quite a collection of minis, some through swaps, some through yarn advent calendars and some I've just purchased especially for my blanket.

I hadn't knitted on my blanket at all this year until this month and I've loved doing a bit each day.  Each square takes just less than an hour to knit and a small amount of yarn, 5g is sufficient, less actually as I find for the size I'm knitting there is still a little left over from 5g.  

So this is how I construct my square, I hope it will be of use to those who have asked about it in the past.

The pattern is just 2 rows, one row knit one decrease row.

(Each of my squares are 48 stitches and I'm using 2.5mm needles)

 (for the decrease row, right side facing)

slip the 1st stitch purl-wise 

Knit to 2 stitches before the center maker then knit those 2 stitches together

Slip the marker, knit the next 2 stitches through the back loop

Knit to end- knitting the last stitch through the back loop.

Slipping the 1st stitch and knitting the last stitch through the back loop on both the knit row and the decrease row creates a nice neat edge which makes picking up stitches for the next square much easier.

For the direction of the decrease I'm using one of the templates by Ellie of Crafthouse Magic which you can find on her Cosy Memories tutorials (part 3), on youtube. 

I feel no particular rush to finish my blanket, it's been in the making for at least two years and although It's been very neglected this year I still love it and enjoy knitting on it as much as when I first started it, half the fun is choosing the next yarn colour.

-X-