Tiled Blanket pattern

New pictures - smaller but better!

The right side up close. It's quite pleasant!

I made this blanket for my aunts' Christmas present. I actually tiled the blanket, but it ended up taking really long to sew, so this is my amended version, and I hope it works. Please change this pattern to see fit to how you like it. Always knit a swatch and block it before going ahead of this project, because it uses a lot of yarn.  This is not a double knit! It requires knitting back and forth on the loom. I took the pattern from knitting on the net squares in squares stitch. I tried to mimic the pattern in 3x3 squares in squares. I would say this is an intermediate pattern, but it really isn't. It's just that it is a tedious pattern and you need to be committed to it to finish it; the hours are long, but you have something very warm at the end. You also must be comfortable at purling stitches, and you will need to block each panel.

Onto instructions, patterns and extra links


You can also mark your progress on this project on Ravelry.

Items you need for knitting:

• 36-peg round loom (knifty knitter, loops and threads, and the large wal-mart looms are all the same)
• bulky yarn - I used 3 300g balls of Bernat's Chunkee Ombre in Wedgewood - they are considered 6, super bulky, so you can double up worsted yarn or find another bulky yarn
• sewing needle

Pattern for each panel:
Cast on using any sturdy cast-on (do not use e-wrap knit over cast-on) on 32 pegs.
Row 1 and 2: Knit.
Row 3 and 4:  Knit 2, *purl 8, knit 2, repeat from *.
Row 5 to 10: Knit 2, *purl 2, knit 4, purl 2, knit 2, repeat from *.
Row 11 and 12: Knit 2, *purl 8, knit 2.
Row 13 and 14: Knit.
Row 15 and 16: Purl.
Repeat pattern (Row 1 to 16) 3 more times, and then repeat the pattern from row 1 to 14 once.
Cast off.

In total you should have 5 "tiles" of the square repeats. This is one panel.

Make 3 of these panels altogether, block them, and sew them together.


Links that should help:

Sewing - I used the mattress stitch - which means that you will notice the seam on the wrong side - it's not that bad looking, but you can also think about slipping the side stitch when you start the next row and sewing it in a different manner. Do not be scared of trying it out (though I would recommend you making 2 small samples of the pattern and then sewing them together). I avoided sewing like the plague, but this is easy, straightforward and fun! It may require for you to look at more than one website - to complete the picture in your mind on how to do it.

• http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-join-knitted-pieces-with-the-mattress-stitc.html - This is the dummies version that gives you a drawn diagram on how to do the mattress stitch - I like how it is drawn - it is neat. You can clearly see how to start sewing, but it is hard to see the "ladders" you use because the picture does not show depth.
• http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEspring04/mattress.html - Knitty has a great tutorial (and they are located in Toronto!!) on how to do the mattress stitch for different seams. Of course, this project is just seaming the stockinette stitch. This is possibly my favourite instructional webpage for the mattress stitch. You can see how you you have to pull your stitches apart a little to find the running ladder. They also have some good tips that other pages may not talk about.
• http://www.knittingdaily.com/blogs/howto/archive/2009/04/10/mattress-stitch-tutorial-vertical-seams.aspx - I don't really like the tutorial as much, because it is hard to see where the running ladders are - but (! sorry for the exlamation marks by the way) they have a good picture of how your the seam looks on the wrong side of your knit. This is so you won't be surprised at how it looks like.

Blocking - Acrylic requires heat to block. If you don't block this big project, it will be all wavy - the easiest way is to throw your project in the dryer since this project is pretty big.

• http://rainyknits.blogspot.ca/2006/08/blocking-acrylic.html - no pictures, but this tells you how to lay out your for blocking and what kinds of things to use (an iron) to block. I found this more informative than the other articles, because the other posts were smaller projects.
• http://beadknitter.blogspot.ca/2009/03/you-can-block-acrylic.html - Pictures of an acrylic shirt pre-blocked and blocked
• http://a-modicum-of-ingenuity.blogspot.ca/2012/03/tutorial-blocking-acrylic-yarn.html - Another pre-blocked, blocked post, this time of blanket/afghan squares. Your project would be substantially larger (and I wouldn't recommend knitting squares because sewing is very time consuming - even more so when you do horizontal seaming)

Have fun, and if you have any questions, please ask! I must remind you this is a very time consuming project, and that patience is very important (to finish this project). It took me 8 days to make. This was also because I knit in squares, and then had to learn how to sew them together (which I regret a bit - I messed up a billion times).

The wrong side also looks really nice! My sister liked the wrong side more.