Trip Blanket

Back in the fall I spent some time brainstorming ideas about how I could knit a blanket with yarn I picked up during our epic roadtrip. I wanted to include data (such as km driven, km hiked) in the blanket somehow. I knit a couple of prototypes and got some great ideas and advice from Lisa Noble (@nobleknits2) It is thanks to her that I tracked homesickness and created our 'getting along index,' which I agree makes it much more personal. The photo here shows the orientation of data in each of the 19 squares that code for a state or province. The state/province abbreviation and number of days we slept there are noted at the bottom. One side of the mitred square gives the number of km driven and the other side has number of km hiked. Homesick index and getting along index are at the top of the square. I used morse code in another colour for the abbreviations and for the distances. The rest are just indicated by a number of stitches in a different colour.




The square below is for California. With the legend above for help, you can see:

Bottom right triangle:
CA at the bottom:  _. _.   ._
Above CA, 45 km hiked:  ...._   .....
Get along index is 3 (pretty good!)

Left top triangle:
13 stitches in orange to represent 13 nights in CA
Above that, 2613 km driven in CA:   .._ _ _     _ ....    . _ _ _ _    ... _ _
Homesick index of 2 (CA was pretty fun!)

Some of the coded squares don't show up as well in the photo, but are easier to read in person. Trust me when I tell you there are 19 in total. :)

Here is the completed blanket. Mitred squares, 30 st per side. A wide variety of weights and fibres, some held double. Squares were joined as I knit. Squares took about 123000 stitches. Border is 8 rows garter stitch. I had about 250 ends to weave in!

My scribbled notes in my journal looked like this:

I fell short of picking up yarn in every state, but here is a (hopefully complete!) list of yarn shops I visited:

The Frayed Knot, Savannah GA

Destin Yarn Shop, Destin FL

The Quarter Stitch, New Orleans LA

Mooncat Fiber, Taos NM (where I was able to get yarn from TX and CO!)

Grandma's Spinning Wheel, Tucson AZ

So Much Yarn, Seattle WA

The Loop, Kensington, Calgary AB

The Naked Sheep, Regina SK

Wolseley Wool, Winnipeg MB

All of the yarn store personnel were helpful and friendly. They recommended local yarn for me, or else yarn that seemed to fit the personality of the place we were visiting. I am thankful to them for all of their advice.