Safe at Home blanket

Safe at Home Blanket by Knitwit Designs

Project Overview

The Safe at Home blanket is a colorful knitted throw designed by Margaret Holzmann that celebrates home and family as a safe place. This intermediate-level knitting project creates a generous 55 x 55 inch (140 x 140 cm) square blanket suitable for display or everyday use. The design encourages creative color work and can be customized using yarn from your personal stash, making it an adaptable project for knitters with varying yarn collections.

What Is Being Made

This is a knitted blanket and throw project that combines multiple knitting techniques to create a finished textile measuring 55 inches square. The blanket features a coordinated color scheme using twelve distinct yarn colors, though crafters are welcome to substitute colors based on available materials. The finished piece serves as both a functional blanket and a decorative statement about the importance of home and family.

Knitting Techniques and Skills Required

• Pick up and knit: A technique for adding new stitches along an existing edge, essential for creating borders and connecting sections of the blanket
• Intarsia: A color work method that allows for the incorporation of multiple colors and patterns within the knitted fabric, creating distinct color blocks and designs
• Sewing: Used to join sections of the blanket and finish edges, requiring basic seaming skills

Stitches and Construction

While specific stitch patterns are detailed within the full PDF pattern, the Safe at Home blanket employs fundamental knitting stitches combined with intarsia colorwork techniques. The construction involves knitting the main blanket face and then working borders using the pick up and knit method, followed by seaming to create a finished edge. This multi-step approach allows knitters to build the blanket in manageable sections.

Yarn and Materials

Yarn Weight: Worsted and Aran weight yarns are used for this project, creating a fabric with good drape and structure suitable for a blanket.

Recommended Yarn: The pattern specifies Malabrigo Worsted Merino, a 100% kettle-dyed pure merino wool yarn. Each skein provides 210 yards (192 meters) and weighs 3.5 ounces (100 grams). The complete color palette includes twelve colors:

• A: Azul Profundo (dark blue) – 2 hanks
• B: Vaa (dark green-blue) – 3 hanks
• C: Jewel Blue (sky blue) – 2 hanks
• D: Lettuce (avocado green) – 2 hanks
• E: Water Green (mint green) – 2 hanks
• F: Cadmium (bright yellow) – 2 hanks
• G: Frank Ochre (dull gold) – 2 hanks
• H: Sunset (orange-yellow) – 2 hanks
• I: Pollen (light yellow or cream) – 2 hanks
• J: Rhodesian (rust) – 2 hanks
• K: Shocking Pink (bright pink) – 2 hanks
• L: Red Mahogany (dark red-brown) – 2 hanks

Yarn Yardage: The complete project requires approximately 3500 yards for the main blanket face and 400 yards for the borders, totaling 3900 yards. Knitters working from existing yarn stash can substitute colors while maintaining these yardage requirements.

Needles and Tools: Appropriate knitting needles for worsted and aran weight yarn (typically US sizes 7-9) are required, along with basic finishing tools including a tapestry needle for seaming and weaving in ends.

Difficulty Level

This project is rated as intermediate difficulty, making it suitable for knitters with foundational skills who are ready to tackle color work and multi-step construction. The combination of intarsia colorwork and the pick up and knit technique requires attention to detail and some experience with shaping and color transitions.

Design Features

The pattern includes a coloring page for planning color arrangements before beginning, allowing knitters to visualize their finished blanket and make design decisions about color placement. This planning tool is particularly helpful when working with the twelve-color palette or when substituting colors from personal yarn stash