I will donate 25% of the pattern sales, for this pattern for always, to Heifer.org, to support women in Ghana.

STRIP KNITTING BLANKET

The inspiration for this design is the Kente cloth that is made by the Ewe people of Ghana. The beautiful Kente is made from narrow bands of woven cloth (strip weaving) that are handstitched together.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KenteCloth.jpg (see picture)

I wanted to make something like it, but since I cannot weave (yet!), I wanted to knit it.
When Karen Templer ( of the http://www.fringesupplyco.com/) started the Log Cabin Knit Along, I joined it, with this idea in mind.
The pattern has two basic block designs, a striped one, in the stark contrasting colors black, white and red, and a colorful one, with one main color, a contrast color and one of the basic colors. The blocks alternate in a checkerboard pattern.

DIFFICULTY LEVEL
Intermediate

SKILLS REQUIRED/TECHNIQUES USED

• Knit & purl, knitted cast on & bind off
• Picking up stitches

MATERIALS
I used lots of different yarns, mostly solid or semi solid fingering weight yarn. Mostly wool, non superwash, because that’s what I prefer, sometimes mixed with Alpaca, or silk. The fingering weight yarns were held double, to create a DK weight yarn. I mixed colors that were close in color, because I loved the depth of color it created. In my blanket only the black is a single black strand of DK weight wool/alpaca. All the other colors are two strands of fingering weight yarn held together.

I have used Drops Flora, Holst Garn Supersoft, Holst Garn Coast, Isager Spinni, Drops Alpaca for fingering weight yarns. But you can use any solid/semisolid fingering weight yarn.

YARN
Basic colors: I’ve used 825 grams of the black, 675 grams of the white and 550 grams of the red color.
Black: Drops Lima, 109 yards(100 meters) per 50 grams (1.76 ounces) single strand; 65% wool/35% alpaca; 17 balls.
White: Drops Flora, 230 yards(210 meters) per 50 grams (1.76 ounces); 65% wool/35% alpaca; 7 balls natural and 7 balls of white. Both strands together.
Red: Drops Flora, 230 yards(210 meters) per 50 grams (1.76 ounces); 65% wool/35% alpaca; 5 balls. Held together with Drops BabyAlpaca Silk, 183 yards(167 meters) per 50 grams (1.76 ounces); 70% alpaca/30% silk; 6 balls.

Color Blocks: There are 25 color blocks. For each block I’ve used 22 grams of the main color, and 6 grams of the contrast color. (The basic colors are already included in the above amounts of black, white and red.) Since there is a sequence in the use of colors (the color that you use as the contrast color in one block, will be the main color in the next color block), you’ll need 28 grams of each of the colors you’ll use. If you combine two strands of fingering, the combined weight should be 28 grams.

NEEDLES
4,5 mm/US 7 40-inch/100 cm circular needle (1 or 2, depends if you prefer to work with 1 or with 2 needles.)
6 mm/US 10 needle for bind off

NOTIONS
Darning needle
Lengths of contrasting color waste yarn for stitch holders

GAUGE
16 sts/32 rows = 4 inches square in garter stitch

SIZE INFORMATION
79,5”/198,75 cm wide; 86”/215 cm long
Each block is 8,5”/21 cm by 15”/36,25 cm