Yarn weights

I am using 8 ply yarns in my stash (various Bendigo Woollen Mills, Nundle Woollen Mills, Jo Sharp, Heirloom, and yes, Spotlight). They range from 12 to 14 wpi. I will try to knit the 12 wpi a little tighter (Luxury, Rustic, Alpaca Rich) and the Heirloom at a slightly looser gauge.

As noted back in my Needed something to knit blanket, certain patterns I seem naturally to knit at a tighter or looser gauge. I’ve analysed this in the first 13 squares and have redone some, focusing on tightening or loosening up a bit. Seems to be working.

I am doing 22 slip stitches along each side.

Experimented with this intarsia cast on, which is just what I was looking for, although the result with duplicate stitch is pretty good and I’m sticking with duplicate stitch: https://yarnsub.com/articles/techniques/intarsia-cast-on/

Have added a few of my own, based on free patterns or patterns I own: Algae, Arne & Carlos’ Crooked Rose, Aussie Fair, an Iris pattern and some really old German pattern book (placeholder text, will link eventually).

26 January 2022 - 124 squares (around 2 per day).
26 February 2022 - 184 squares LOVING it.
17 April 2022 - knitting finished (17 x 15 = queen = 255) and all but 10 squares blocked.
22 May 2022 - six months in and crocheting together is slow going, but it looks great. Not a finish I’d considered before but I’m sold on it.
3 August 2022 - finally the edging, 4 rounds of back bump single crochet to mimic the look of the joins.