After a little over 3 weeks of here-and-there work, my Welcome Blanket is complete and ready to be wrapped up and sent to the Smart Museum, where the main exhibit is taking place. I’m told that the project has recently broken the 1001 blanket mark, and the plan is for the exhibit to house all the donated blankets in a single room!
I started this Welcome Blanket on August 16th and finished on September 10th, working a square at a time, seaming up and weaving in the numerous ends here and there. I found it easier to stay motivated by going back and forth between knitting, seaming, and weaving-in than to separate like tasks and complete them all in sequence. I chose to knit up the project’s recommended pattern – Come Together by Kat Coyle.
© Kat Coyle
What’s wonderful about Come Together, as a beginner blanket-project, is its knitter-friendly modular construction. Made up of 16 10″ x 10″ diagonally knit garter-stitch squares, the pattern provides a way of easily producing even fields of colour and allows for endless compositional variations. Knitting squares also means that the blanket feels like a quick knit for being done in small pieces (even if the finishing up is much more slow going).
My favourite part of this project was getting to play around with shape and colour; I discovered that I love to tinker with modular composition and variations (which seems to be something that, say, quilters get to engage in more than knitters?). I’m feeling a little bereft of words this week, so I’ll let the images reveal the process, from designing to finishing up. As you’ll notice, my colour choices changed significantly early on – the product of a compromise, or trying to balance creative vision with, er, the much humbler desire to de-stash and work with the materials I already had at hand. It turns out that big visions and material constraints can and do play nicely after all.
Designing and Tinkering
Knitting and Finishing Up
Me and my FO
Now, to wrap it up, pen a warm message to its recipient, and send it on its way.
For more information about the Welcome Blanket Project, see here.
Happy Making, friends!
handmade habit 
totally awesome! we must be on the same wave length, i’ve started knitting a blanket too! on thicker yarn 😀 Bravo it looks fantastic xx
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Thank you! Oh, how lovely to hear. The idea of being wrapped up in knitting is pretty awesome, and blankets make that happen! Looking forward to hearing more about your blanket – it sounds cozy!
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my mouse gets more blankets than I do :p only because she gets the squares whenever I loose motivation haha, maybe she’s playing mind games with me to give up so she gets more squares for her house 😮
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Ha! Adorable – I’m sure she’s loving the blankets. 🙂 If someone were knitting beautiful blankets for my house, I think I might, too. Happy Blanket-Making! 🙂
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hehe thank you dear! she takes better care of my knitting than me!
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Very cool! This looks like a fun knit for a good cause.
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Thanks, Tony. This was a really fun project to work on, and the cause added a lot of motivation. All best. 🙂
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I need to make that in crochet. Looks fantastic.
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Thanks, Yolanda! There’s indeed a free crochet version of the pattern available on the Welcome Blanket site. I am sure your blanket would be stunning. 🙂 Happy Making!
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Every time I make a modular blanket like this, my interest in learning how to quilt flares up again. My sewing machine and I have longstanding disagreements, though I’m not sure if I’m the root of the problem or if it’s my beginner Kenmore, so I doubt that I’ll actually get around to it any time soon. I love playing with the designs! I really like your finished blanket and the variation in the reds & oranges.
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Thanks, Mandy! I am always amazed by your crafting multi-talents and, I am sure, were you to take up quilting, your work and patterns would be beautiful! (I can see a quilted version of your current embroidery image in gorgeous greens). I used to love to sew, once upon a time, but the Singer broke down and I got discouraged from continuing. I admire people who can sew – maintaining a good relationship with the machinery and keeping things running is another skill, I think. 🙂 Thanks for reading.
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Very inspiring! I never knew you could make a quilt like this knitting! I’ll have to try it:)
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Thanks you for reading, AJ! The free pattern is a joy to work with, and I have to say that this knit up pretty quickly with the chunky/doubled-up yarns I was using, if you don’t mind a garter-stitch marathon. 🙂 Happy Knitting!
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Absolutely joyous!!! ❤️
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Thank you! And thank you for reading, Melinda! ❤
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It looks so great ! Congratulations, it must been hard deciding on the final design, there were so many possibilities. And what a wonderful stashbusting project too. I’m sure someone will dearly love this blanket.
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Thank you, Agnès! I do hope it will be loved in its new home. Yes – there were lots of possibilities. At the end of the day, I let what was in my stash have the final say on the colours! Thank you for reading and enjoy your weekend. 🙂
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I have the same thoughts making mine. I enjoyed playing with the placement and now that I’ve settled on one I can’t wait to get the squares done. Yours is beautiful!
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Yay, Nicky! 🙂 Yes, playing around with placement was fun. I know your blanket is going to be beautiful. Thank you for reading, and looking forward to following your progress. Happy Making! 🙂
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Thank you lady!!! I’m enjoying making it.
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very awesome!
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Thank you, Tierney!
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Oh Shirley, it’s beautiful! And it’s actually huge… For some reason I thought it was just lap-blanket sized when I saw it on Instagram, but somebody could really wrap themselves up in this gorgeous snuggly creation! I also loved all the different variations on the pattern you showed – modular designs are so versatile!
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Thank you, Helen. I wasn’t expecting it to take on so much size, but it turned out quite large. I suppose the product of all that chunky and doubled-up yarn, which is unexpectedly stretchy and billowy! Thank you for reading. 🙂
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Oh, it’s wonderful, Shirley! And what a great cause. It’s such a big and beautiful blanket (as Helen said, I thought it was smaller, too!) Plus, I have been away from your page for just a wee while and I see some new design elements here. Lovely–all of it! You are so talented with your photography and colors 🙂
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Thank you, Melissa. Between this project and the square for the Knit Along, August-September has proved to be a very blankety period! I actually can’t wait to try mitered squares, and seeing your Color shift blanket is a huge inspiration! Thank you for reading. 🙂
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Yay! This is beautiful. 🙂 So lovely to connect with you. I love what you write about letting the image reveal the process. I relate to that! Many blessings, Debbie
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Thank you, Debbie! Yes, it can be so fun letting the process kind of take over. 🙂 Thank you for reading!
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Sure you got it! ❤ Have a beautiful rest of your week. ~Debbie
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It’s spectacular! I only wish my knitting was consistent enough, to guarantee a contribution worthy of the whole.
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Thank you! And thank you for stopping by to read. 🙂
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Reblogged this on Yarnsage.
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Wow! So pretty! I am obsessed with half square triangles in quilting right now and I love how they translate to knitting. The bold colors make the blanket even more interesting.
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Thank you for reading, Tina! 🙂 I’m glad you enjoy the colours!
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