Personalised Patchwork Blanket - a work in progress

I got the idea to make a patchwork after I bought some knit magazines and on the front cover was a gorgeous patchwork blanket.  I decided I wanted to make my own, but personalised to me; you'll see lots of pinks and hearts. It is also a great way to practice different textures and knitting methods.

Each square is roughly 18cmx15cm unstretched, it's currently around the size of a large pillow case, but I will continue to add to it until I have a blanket, then I intend to buy a large peice of cotton material to line the back of the blanket.

1.  Simple Basketweave

Pattern here.

This was pretty easy to follow, alternating between knit 7 purl, and I think it is a very cool look

2. EntrelacIf, like me, you have never knitted entrelac before, you may find the written instructions completely useless; I personally could not visualise how to do what they said, so I found this great tutorial on Youtube, broken down into each section of the knit:

Part One - Base Triangles

Part Two - Left Edge Triangle
Part Three - Wrong Side Rectangles

Part Two - Left Edge Triangle

Part Four - Right Edge Rectangles

Part Five - Right Side Rectangles

Part Six - Top Edge Triangles

3. Slip Stitch

Pattern here.

The yarn I used was a kind of fine silk texture that kept catching and fraying so it looks a bit messy in places, but otherwise this was a fun and easy pattern to follow

4. Union JackThis was my first attempt at intarsia knitting, I found this Union Jack Knitting Chart from Let's Knit and used it as a guide to make my patch. The back will end up quite messy, with lots of loose ends of yarn to bind off and tidy away. The one tip I would give is DO NOT forget to 'twist' the two threads around each other when changing colours or you may be left with a 'split' in the work.

5. Bobble Yarn

I got this yarn for 60c in a bargain bin at Spotlight, and the inside of the label showed how to make it into a scarf. I essentially knitted a very short scarf for my patch. I'm not sure what I think of it, but it's a cool texture.

6. Purple HeartsThis pattern was an improvisation; I found this Heart Knitting Chart on Pintrest then repeated the heart pattern six times (two rows of three). To increase the height of the patch (a third row of hearts would have been too tall) I added a few stripes (one row of purple, two rows of cream, repeat three times):

7. Jumbo Cable

Pattern here.

The pattern shows just one cable knit, I just repeated this three times to make the patch... but I'm not comepletely happy with how this one came out

 

8. Stripes

This the first ever colour changing knit I tried and was a pattern I just made up; I think I did six rows of white and four rows of pink.

9. Alternating Diagonals

Pattern here.

This pattern was one I had to follow very carefully to get right but its a very cool finish; I love it in green because it looks like leaves

10. Zig Zags

This is another pattern I made up to practice colour changes, but I wanted to make it a bit more complicated than just stripes, so I zig-zagged the colours.

11. Flirtation Cable

Pattern here

This pattern is for just the cable itself over 15 stitches, I decided I wanted two cables running horizontally across the patch, so I cast on 36, adding two stitches either end, and  two in between the cables... here is the amended pattern that I used:

Row 1 (RS):  P2 K3, p4, 6-st RC, p4.  K3, p4, 6-st RC, p4.
Row 2:  K4, p6, k4, p3.  K4, p6, k4, p3, k2
Row 3:  P2, 5-st LPC, 5-st RPC, 5-st LPC, p2,  5-st LPC, 5-st RPC, 5-st LPC, p2
Rows 4:   K2, P3, k4, p6, k4.  P3, k4, p6, k4.
Row 5:  P4, 6-st LC, p4, k3,  P4, 6-st LC, p4, k3, p2
Rows 6:   K2, P3, k4, p6, k4.  P3, k4, p6, k4.
Row 7:  P2, 5-st RPC, 5-st LPC, 5-st RPC, p2,  5-st RPC, 5-st LPC, 5-st RPC, p2
Row 8:  K4, p6, k4, p3,  K4, p6, k4, p3, k2
Rep rows 1–8.

I used size 6 needles and repeated the pattern 4 times, and this was big enough for my patchwork; I was really pleased with how it turned out.

12. Jumbo Stockinette

This is another 60c bargain bin find, which was supposed to make a scarf, but I used big needles (10mm I think) and just did a Stockinette stitch to make this chunky knit patch