The Northern Lights blanket....

I started this blanket about 10 weeks ago.  I still had quite a bit of the bright yarn that my sister gave me many months ago and it seemed perfect for Ten Stitch Blanket pattern.  This is an intriguing pattern for a square or rectangular blanket that is knitted in an ever-increasing spiral.  I had it queued on Ravelry for quite a while and just decided to get on with it.

There are over 3000 projects posted on the Ravelry pattern page and many useful comments about the easiest and neatest ways to turn the corners and join the stripes.  I found detailed instructions that worked well for me.  The important tips included slipping all stitches purlwise except for the stitch just before joining the stripes.  This is slipped knitwise and makes an edge which is easy to join to on the next round. Another tip is that each stripe has garter ridges in multiples of nine.  Sadly, I printed off the instructions but didn't make a note of the helpful knitters' names.  They are somewhere in those 3000 projects!  I'm sending a big "thank you" to whoever they are.  

I kept knitting until I was happy that the blanket was big enough at 37" x 37".  This is roughly the size needed at SIBOL.  The founder, Sue, distributes the blankets to care homes and bright colours are in demand.

The beauty of this pattern is that it can be knitted in any weight yarn.  I used dk yarn but Aran would work just as well.  There are some great versions of this blanket on Ravelry.  I think the most eye-catching are those where the knitters have used the same colour for each complete round.  But I was trying to use up yarn and didn't want small amounts left.  So I joined colours anywhere and am treating the effect as a design feature!

There are lots of online tutorials for anyone needing help with knitting this blanket. I have also just found a brilliant web page here which has detailed charts for planning the colours and even has a link to a crochet version of this blanket.  I will seriously consider making the crochet version next time as I find crochet much quicker for blankets.

I managed to use up all the bright colours my sister gave me.  I added a navy blue outer row which doesn't show in the photo.  I had the theme of the "Northern Lights" in mind while I was knitting so I needed a night sky colour for the last row.  I've never been lucky enough to see the Northern Lights, so this blanket is probably as close as I will ever get to them.

Ten weeks sounds like a long time.  But this is a really busy time of year for me.  Then the heatwave arrived and I had to take a break and make some smaller, cooler projects.  I enjoyed knitting this blanket and have saved the pattern as I have plans to knit another one in the (far distant) future.  At this moment, I actually have zero WIPs. But that unnatural state won't last long!