Copyright September 2006, Ann McManus
 
Here's the recipe for making a giant mitered square "blankie" or lap robe:

Finished size 36-40" square for lap robe or blankie, upsize accordingly for 
bed blanket:

Bunch of yarn, any weight, any amount (you can use odd balls, or stuff 
purchased specifically for this project. You can use a single strand or 
double. You can use various weights, combining them to get a similar weight 
(4 fingering/baby/sock=3 sport=2 worsted=1 bulky, for example)

About 700 yards of "chunky" (3 stitches to the inch on size 10.5s) gave me a 
40" square.

Figure your gauge. (Either use the number on the ball band, or cast on about 
30 stitches and knit a square and measure. You are not making an angel food 
cake!

Determine how big you want your finished square (call the side measurement 
"S"), Multiply that by your gauge ("G") and multiply the result by 2 to get 
the number of stitches to cast on ("C"):

C= S X G X 2 (I want a 40" square, my gauge is 3 stitches to the inch, I 
cast on 40 X 3 X 2 or 240 stitches)

WS: Knit one row, placing a marker at the middle. In my example, the marker 
goes between stitch 120 and 121.

All RS rows: Knit to 2 stitches before the marker, K 2 tog, slip marker, k 2 
tog. Knit to the end.

All WS rows: K across, slipping the marker.

When 4 stitches remain, on RS, k 2 tog, remove marker, k 2 tog. Next row, K 
2 tog. Fasten off.

The beauty of this lap robe is that each row gets shorter. You can use lots 
of odd balls, or plan your pattern. Use one strand of a single color (black, 
white, aran, red) and one strand of whatever you have. You can add textured 
yarn. You can throw in a row of YO, k2 tog for interest.

Ann


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