How to make a simple but beautiful knitted patchwork blanket

This project is great for all abilities as you can make it as big or small, and as simple or complicated as you like!

 

 
It's particularly great for using up small amounts of wool, and if you do make a mistake or mess up a square you haven't got loads of work to unpick or to lose if you need to start it again.
 
You can also ask friends or family to contribute a square if you get bored before reaching the size you wanted!
 
I made mine using 49 squares and a pattern from a book I was given for Christmas. All in all it took me about 4 months, averaging about 1.5 hours per square.

Outline instructions...

1. Knit lots of squares! - for ideas, visit my gallery of squares, this is updated regularly so please keep checking back

 

2. Lay out all the squares in the order/pattern required

3. Tidy the squares into piles (keeping the order)

 

4. Sew each of the piles into a long strip and then sew the long strips together. When sewing the strips together, make sure that each square lines up with its neighbour. This may mean shaping or stretching certain squares with your hands as you go to ensure that they are all the same size and fit into the grid pattern.

 

 

6. Edge (see below for basic tips - full details can be found on my Full Patchwork Blanket Instructions page)

 

What you'll need...

• Basic knitting ability - cast on, knit and cast off is all that is needed for the most basic blanket, and even these look great if done in a mixture of colours
• Knitting needles - between size 3mm and 4mm, the exact size doesn't matter, but use the same size throughout to ensure that all the squares come out roughly the same size and shape
• Circular knitting needle - roughly the same size as the ones used for the main knitting. This is used to edge the work. You won't be knitting in the round, but the cable that joins the two needles is needed because of the large number of stitches that you will be working with across each edge, normal needles just wouldn't be long enough and you'd keep losing stitches off the end! (Edging isn't essential if you don't fancy it, just announce the blanket is finished when it has been sewn together and stop!)
• Wool - double knit wool, any colours, might be nice to make one of these in different shades of the same colour
• Darning needle or bodkin - to sew the squares together