Epic Chevron Blanket

I finally finished my ginormous blanket!

It fits the couch perfectly. It’s about 6x4 feet when spread out flat…maybe just a little bigger, like 73x49”. It took me six months to knit, mostly because it became very unportable as it grew. That said, I knit through the last 4.5 or so balls of yarn sitting in my minivan on a long ride to Texas and back. I don’t recommend giant blankets for car knitting projects, but I knew I had a lot of hours and I really wanted to finish this (even if I had to crank up the AC the further south we drove).

I used 18 balls of Cascade 220 Superwash and a US 6 needle (4.0 mm). The result is firm but still drapey due to the endless miles of garter stitch. I made a rookie mistake in the very beginning that turned out not to be a problem due to dumb luck. I didn’t weigh all my yarn. Now, we know that 100 gram balls of yarn don’t all weigh 100 grams, but I think these varied quite a lot. I knit the first color until it looked like I didn’t have quite enough left for another couple garter ridges and then stopped. I have 7 grams left of that color. I have more of the orangey-red left than anything else (35 grams). If I had started with the orange, I would have turned up short on the others.

The patterns Fancy Tiger Crafts’ Heirloom Chevron Throw. They use their own heirloom Romney yarn in it, which is bulkier than Cascade 220. Their pattern calls for rows that are 217 stitches long (mine are 329) and stripes that are 50 rows (mine are 78). I figure I have 153,972 stitches in this baby, more or less.The colors are Turtle, Pacific, Doeskin Heather, Provence, Aporto, and Chocolate.The blanket is already fully incorporated into family life. Boy 1 said “it’s like a wool sock for your whole body!” I’m actually considering beginning another blanket project, but my next one will be knit modularly so it can go with me more places.I might even start knitting little squares of my leftover sock yarn. Now THAT would be an epic project to span a number of years. For now, though, I’m glad to have this done so we can all enjoy it.