Pattern? For my miters I use the Psychedelic Squares Afghan method, BUT I don't make the very last color change because I don't want to try to perfectly match up those tiny tips of color when I am seaming. Speaking of seaming, I am using the Mason-Dixon Knitting method of making my Mitered Squares Afghan as minimal sew as possible. To die for. Of course, you can use whatever method you want to make your MSA - Check the sidebar fo ideas if you aren't sure or want to do research.
Yarn? I am using Cotton Ease (by the way Lynn, I love it too and have used it for years - aren't you just so happy with the more practical colors of the new line?) Whatever cotton or cotton blend that you have in your stash will do - even if you have to buy a couple of complementary colors, this project is such a great stash-buster! I do suggest that the yarns are exactly the same gauge or there may be not-so-attractive rippling.
Color Tips? Even if your blanket is going to be "random," its a good idea to at least make sure the colors in a miter go together. I am the mega-literal type and I just used a grab-with-my-eyes-shut method to select the next two colors for the MSA that I made in College. Man, it turned out fugly. You can use whatever colors make you happy, but I really didn't trust myself with my current color spread to make a "pleasantly random" blanket, so I made a planned layout.
Layout? How to make a planned layout using the highly technical MSPaint program:
First I laid out my yarn in a rainbow as best as I could, and then I selected colors from MSPaint that looked like my yarn. Here I had to do some major inventing of colors, and even after all was said and done, a few of the yarn colors are so saturated that I couldn't get a match. I just tried to get as close as possible. I made twenty little squares and filled them in (using the little bucket icon) with the 20 yarn colors that I made (one of them is just a white square for my white yarn). You with me? Okay.
Then, I made a tiny square and began to make "concentric" squares around it until I had basically a blank miter square (what four miters will look like together). Then I made a cross on it, trying to get the intersection as close to the center as possible. I didn't save my actual square, but it is more exact than this one that I just made on the fly:
Then, I made a tiny square and began to make "concentric" squares around it until I had basically a blank miter square (what four miters will look like together). Then I made a cross on it, trying to get the intersection as close to the center as possible. I didn't save my actual square, but it is more exact than this one that I just made on the fly:
I copied and pasted that square until I was happy with the size, and then I began filling in (using the dropper and the bucket) the miters how I want them. It took some time but it was easy and worth it. Plus, I made a check mark to copy and paste on completed miters - who doesn't love checking things off?
If there are any questions, let me know; I am sometimes detailed to the point of confusion.
To Join? Just leave a comment on this blog or email me at 53stitches at gmail dot com. Make sure to give me your email address so I can invite you to make posts!
I think that's pretty much it for procedures - after all, we are here to knit this blanket because we were inspired by Cara to miter until our fingers fall off. Who cares how we do it?
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