The Southampton Blanket

This is what is fondly known in this house as The Southampton Blanket! Its a knitted blanket made up of 9 x13 squares based on the 'Building Blocks' blanket pattern in Blankets and Throws to Knit by Debbie Abrahams. It's knitted in Rowan Wool Cotton in about 9 different colours. So why The Southampton Blanket? Well for my work I spend quite a lot of time travelling and often stay overnight in hotels. There is only just so much television you can watch - so I wanted a craft project I could take with me. And this was it.  All I needed was a couple of balls of wool, the needles and by the end the pattern was in my head. It came everywhere with me - I knitted in Switzerland, Spain (too hot for knitting) Teesside, Newcastle (ideal temperature for knitting!).... but mostly, you've guessed it, in Southampton. In the time it took to knit it I also attended a workshop where I learned to do mattress stitch properly which made a huge difference as my sewing up prior to this always seemed to spoil the knitting.



So here is the blanket in situ where it lives during the winter. And let me introduce you to the Quilt Model aka Muttley! He's very cute isn't he? We have other choices of doggy Quilt Model which I hope you will see as we go on - but for the sitting on the bed role he is probably just a little more appropriate than a black labrador.