April’s Knitter’s Almanac project is a "mystery blanket," the mystery being in the fact that it has no apparent beginning. Elizabeth pondered the idea of weaving together squares that had been knitted in the round, thereby "[producing] the mysterious effect of the blanket having been knitted in all directions at once," and this pattern was the result. The technique may have been quite inscrutable at the time, but these days with our sometimes-emphasis on the eye-catching and marvellous (sometimes merely for the effect of being startling), it’s not so unusual, I think. It was used quite gracefully by Selma Miriam in her Kousa Dogwood Shawl in Melanie Falick’s Knitting in America (reprinted in paperback as America Knits), which I remember knitting a number of years ago. Still, Elizabeth’s blanket is very handsome, and the technique is not to be scorned simply because it is not so unusual as it once was!
Elizabeth used her 4-Ply Sheepswool, which is apparently now 3-Ply, working up originally at 12 sts per 4 in./10cm. This pattern looks extremely adaptable to different weights of wool, and so since I’m on a b*dg*t, I’m using Patons Classic Wool with those handy weekly 40%-off coupons from Michaels. The Classic Wool works up to about 20 sts per 4 in./10 cm, so you can either knit the squares to the given stitch count, and simply make more squares, or work to the given measurements, and weave more per square. (Let’s see, 96 sts divided by 4 is 24, so 24 sts at 3 sts per inch in the Sheepswool would make 8-inch squares. And 96-stitch squares at 5 sts per inch in the Classic Wool would make 4.8-inch squares. Or 8-inch squares at 5 sts per inch means 40 sts per side, 160 altogether.)
And, oh yes, there will be a lot of weaving! "If you are one who hates and fears weaving (or grafting, or — why — Kitchener-stitch), and tries to con others into doing it for you, now is the time to take yourself in hand"!
A Bluestocking Knits 
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