This blanket is named after our oldest (so far) knitting group member; you can see us all together in the knitting group blog. Scottie came to the group with a wonderful old and worn blanket that was made for him by his sister-in-law sometime around 1947 and it has great sentimental value. We suggested that we might mend and extend it, and so found matching yarn, studied the construction and set about making more squares.
This way of making squares is very old and is ideal for a casserole blanket, if you have thinner yarns, double or triple them to average the thickest. Even tiny amounts of yarn can be used, either as half squares or by knitting a few rows to make a stripe. Add new colours on the right side for a clean stripe, or on the wrong side for a shaded edge. The idea is that each square comes out the same size because it is worked to a size, diagonally, not with a standard cast on start.
We recommend starting with double knitting weight yarn and short bamboo needles, size 4mm (available from Ellas Knitting).
Cast on 3 sts. Knit every row as follows:
Slip 1, k1, M1, k to end of row.
When the side of the half square that you have made measures 6 " or 15 cm, knit two rows straight then change tack and work every row as follows:
Slip 1, k1, k2 tog, k to end.
When 3 sts remain, slip 1, k2 tog, psso.
Joining the squares is easy if you can do double crotchet, and looks splendid if there is enough of one colour to join and make a border.
Arrange the squares in the pattern that you like and, holding them wrong sides together work double crotchet to join, when one seam is done, simply pick up the next pair and carry on, and so on. Join a new row onto the first, and repeat until all the east-west seams are closed, then work across in the opposite direction and close the north-south seams. If you want a border, make a double crotchet into every ridge of the garter stitch and work around, making two into the corners.
