Wool Leftovers Blanket

I had a lot of fun planning for and making this blanket.  I had bought a lot of classic wool for various projects, including some Christmas stockings I made for my boys, and some mittens.  These projects involved colorwork, so I had a lot of partial skeins left over in a variety of colors.  It finally hit me to make a patchwork-sort of blanket out of the remnants.  The wool, although different brands (I used Cascade 220 and Paton's Classic Wool), has similar feel, size, and care instructions.

At first I dreaded the idea of making a ton of little pieces that then would need to be sewn together, but it turns out it was great.  As I said in my last post, I have been feeling miserable lately, and a small project that didn't require looking at a pattern or much brain power was just the thing I needed.  It could be worked on straight needles, also, making it small and manageable.  Anyone who has made a blanket on circulars knows it can be tedious to have all those stitches on at once.

I took each ball of yarn and started knitting until I became concerned I was running low, then I would weigh a finished square on my trusty food scale, weigh the remaining ball of yarn, and see if I had enough.  Worked like a charm.  Some colors I was able to make 5 or 6 squares, some I only made one. 

Before long I had a big stack of squares (why I didn't take a picture of this, I don't know), but I ended up with 45 squares.  45 did not compute into a normal sized blanket, so I sacrificed 3 squares and made a 7x6 square blanket.  It measures 41"x36".

I left the cast on and cast off tails between 16-18" long on each square so I could do all the seaming with tails, and that worked well.  I didn't have to use any supplementary yarn for seaming.

I arranged the squares in a random sort of arrangement, and I think the colors work nicely together: earthy, warm, rich and comforting.

Here's my son Noah (2 years old) modeling for me.  The blanket is a great size for kids, or for a lap blanket or throw.  I also thought it would be nice in the car, the perfect thing to put on your lap when it's cold out.  It certainly is warm - having it on my lap while I was seaming was heavenly.  My heat-loving dog enjoyed it, too!

I'm so happy with this blanket, and for getting to use leftovers in a meaningful way.  I might have to make more of these in the future!