Stephen West Free Blanket Pattern

 A few days ago, I went on Ravelry (which I don't do often enough) and checked out all the Stephen West patterns I hadn't yet seen.  One of the things I downloaded was a free pattern for Garter Squish, a blanket made with doubled yarn on #15 needles.

It's really just a LOT of garter stitch.  There are two things that make it nicer - one, an easy-peasy I-cord border and, two, using the same yarn as the second yarn throughout.  This allows you to use a pretty wide range of yarns for the first, and gives it a color cohesiveness.

What really excited me was being able to use up a lot of the Noro Kureyon I have in stash. I love Noro and Kureyon was my first experience with it. But, truthfully, it is not an easy yarn to wear. I have, of, course, worn it  just because the colors were so unique and beautiful and wild, invoking the phrase,' Il faut souffrir pour etre belle.'  Though I am generally opposed to suffering for beauty, I'd make an exception for Kureyon.

Now the reason I can use it in a blanket that I fully intend to wrap myself, and snuggle down. into, is because that second yarn I'm pairing it with is Plymouth Encore. The softness of the Encore seems to be totally mitigating the roughness of the Kureyon.

This is a meditative knit and, as always, the lovely color changes of Noro, keep my interest high.


 Here it was 4 days ago:

and here it is today:

I'm wondering if I will finish it before the Polar Vortex finishes with us.  In any case, it has now grown enough to start being useful across my lap even as I am still knitting it.