Simple Knit Log Cabin Blanket – Part 2

If you haven’t read the first post on this project, go here for details on the start of the project and the pattern I am using for these squares.

Lada reminding me that my priority should be petting her, NOT sewing up blanket squares.

For a while I was cruising along on this project.  The squares don’t require much attention – even when I miss adding a row to my counter, it is easy enough to just count the garter ridges to get back on track.  It was my go-to evening knitting. When Adam and I curled up on the sofa at night, I would pull out the bag with all the yarn for this project and knit away.

And then I realized I might not have enough of the cream yarn to make it all the way to the planned 25 squares.  So I started knitting faster, picking up the project whenever I had spare time.  Am I the only one who thinks the yarn might just make it to the end of the project if I knit faster?  And then I reality finally hit me – I didn’t have a chance, at 23 squares knit, there was no way that what I had left was going to make it far enough to make even one more square much less two.

Here are the squares laid out on the guest bed awaiting the final two. Note there is a second quilt in progress underneath – I have misplaced my quilting pins and have not yet been able to pin this together for quilting!

So I gathered up my squares, spread them out and tried to figure out how to make a blanket shape out of 23 squares.  I arranged and rearranged them, did all sorts of scribbled math on the back of an envelope. And then I piled them all up, and put the whole lot in the craft room for a time out.  I went back and forth between just using 20 of the squares (making a 4′ x 5′ blanket) or going out and picking up another ball of yarn. After a week or two of moving the squares around the room to make space for other projects, I finally decided to just buy the extra yarn.  

I knew I would be disappointed if I went with the smaller size.  Not only would I have had three extra squares (which I would most likely have ripped out to reuse in another project), but I would also have a blanket much smaller than I like to make.  (I have a strong dislike for the traditional baby blanket size. In my opinion, if a normal sized adult can’t use it as a sofa blanket, it is too small!) Since I only needed a small amount of yarn to finish the project and the original yarn in question was purchased as random color mill ends, this meant a trip to Joann’s Fabric & Crafts.  I put my mental blinders on before entering the store, and was able to get in, get the yarn and get out with just the single ball of yarn!  

All of the squares are complete and sewn into strips!

After making the decision to go ahead and make the full 25 squares, I had to figure out what the centers would be on the final two. I laid out all of the squares I had already made, checked in my bag for what colors I had left.  Arranged and rearranged the squares several times, and decided on the color combinations for the final two squares. Once those were knit up, it was time to start attaching squares and sewing in ends!

While I am happy to take on any number of knitting challenges (cables, lace, etc.), my seaming leaves something to be desired.  I usually get around this by knitting only seamless projects, and when I do fall in love with a sweater pattern that requires seaming, I usually get all the pieces finished and then wait until I see my mom to have her seam it up.  (My mother is a master at seaming up knit pieces and I am always amazed at what she brings back to me.) However, given how tight I was on the cream yarn already, the applied i-cord/3-needle bind-off hybrid I had considered was off the table. That meant that I was going to have to sew the squares together myself.

Front of seam on left and back of seam on right

I used this tutorial, and I am really pleased with the results.  I am putting this together just like I would any other quilt, sewing together all the squares across each strip and then sewing each strip together.  And then there are the million ends which need to be sewn in along the way. It took the better part of a weekend, but I got all the squares sewn into strips and 90% of the ends sewn in!

I don’t usually line these blankets, I think the backside usually comes out pretty tidy, and I really like the drape of just the knit fabric.  So once all the seams are done and the ends sewn in this project will be finished! (Unless I get it in my head that the blanket absolutely must have a border and I somehow have enough yarn to make it work – can you tell the seed is already planted.)  I will keep you posted on my progress and the next post you see might be the finished blanket!

Wishing you hours of knitting (and seaming) fun!