Another wedding blanket

Late last year, my friend D from work found out her sister was engaged and had plans to marry in autumn 2017.  D knows how much I enjoy knitting, and had long admired (I don't think she'll mind me saying that!) the blankets I have made for friends' weddings and babies.  She asked me if she could commission me to make a blanket for her sister's wedding - I agreed, and then the fun bit started of planning a pattern and choosing colours.

I showed D the Wool Warehouse website and she went about choosing some colours.  She has expensive taste and veered towards the beautiful yarns with a high wool content.  I pointed out her budget didn't quite stretch to these sorts of materials, and led her to the much more affordable (and still pretty soft) Stylecraft range.  In the end she chose three shades of Batik (Heather, Sage, and Storm) and then Duck Egg and Parchment from the Special DK range.

I used the Memory Blanket pattern from Ravelry, usually used with little bits of sock yarn.  D wanted the blanket to be knitted rather than crocheted, and her mum had requested a solid pattern rather than one with holes - this was turning out to be a family affair!  My only stipulation had been something which didn't require too much sewing up at the end.

The yarn arrived, and I started knitting.  I'd worked out that every twenty squares (I cast on 40sts per square) would have five each of the Batik colours, three of the Duck Egg and two of Parchment.  This was back in February.  It was a portable project for quite a while, but soon became too big.

It was also incredibly slow.  The other blankets I've made for weddings (for example, here and here) have all been crocheted, and most of the baby blankets I've made have also been crcocheted.  I kind of forgot how quickly crochet grows compared with knitting.

But I persevered.  It wasn't the most fun I've ever had knitting a blanket, but it's a super easy pattern and you can just keep going and going with it whilst watching tv/listening to podcasts.

And whilst it's not necessarily my cup of tea, I do love the finished product:

I finished this with just four days to go before the deadline - if I had a bit more time I think I would have added one more row to it.  It fits just on top of our king size bed, but there isn't any of it hanging over the edge, which is what I'd normally like.  It is however ideal for snuggling on the sofa and of course will be just the right size if the couple has a double bed rather than a king!

This blanket is now in its new home with the newlyweds and I hope they (and the family!) are happy with it.  I wish them all the very best for the future!