Sweater to Blanket

A long time ago, I knitted a sweater for Oat. He wanted a fisherman cable sweater, but he overestimated my knitting skills. He got something more in my realm of technical ability. I got the yarn from a sheep farm shop, Morehouse Farm. I was there for a photo shoot. This was in my distant past when I worked as a book designer. The yarn was squishy and soft. I knitted the sweater in double strands, it was super warm, so he didn’t wear it often. Here’s the sweater on our trip to Prague. It did great with all our walking around the city.


Once I moved back to Hawaii, I decided to repurpose the sweater into a blanket for my dad. Not that dad needed such a warm blanket in Hawaii but there a couple of weeks a year when a cozy warm blanket is appreciated.

I decided on a basketweave pattern with a chunky stockinette border. It was easy enough that if I put it down for a while I could pick right up. I made the blanket wide enough to cover a person and I would knit the blanket till I ran out of yarn.

Well, as expected, I put down the blanket, probably because it was too hot to knit a wool blanket. I think it’s been about at least four years of sitting is a bag waiting for the right moment. And I guess it’s the right moment. I’m not feeling creative to start a new project (I guess it part of the mourning process). And the weather has been cool and breezy. Things have fallen in place to finish this blanket.


It went quicker than I thought. I bought a Japanese floor chair (no legs, seat cushion with a back) to sit on in front of my monitor to watch my shows as I knitted. It took a little over two weeks to finished. There was a bit of yarn chicken at the end. But I won with about 12″ of yarn to spare.


The finished size is w. 38″ x 42″. The pattern is a simple basketweave in a pattern of 3 stitches/ 5 stitches with a border of stockinette 8 stitches wide. It makes me happy that I finished a project. Maybe I can move to a new project soon.

Beginning of Dad’s Blanket

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Dad is always cold. Remember he lives on the west side of Oahu, not the coldest place in the world. Here’s an example, last August when I was back for a visit, it was hot. My parents have an window air condition in the dining room/living room, which my dad kind of controls. It is only turn on when it is really hot to him or when he feels sorry for his youngest child.

I guess he was felt sorry for me and turned it on that day. It was on for a little while but suddenly noticed that I was feeling really hot and sweat was beading up on my face. Now  I know that I’m Princess Hot Flash so I did wonder if I was having one of them but I turned to my mom and she has sweat beading up on her face, too.

I kind of whisper to her (dad is hard of hearing)  if the air conditioner was working.  And she said, “Dad turned it to fan because he was cold” while motion me not to say anything.

What!! I turned to look at him and he has his fleece vest on.

So this is why I’m making my dad that lives on the west side of Oahu (the dry hot side of the island) a double strand merino wool blanket. Hopefully this will keep him warm.

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Pattern: Compy Blanket designed by Linda Daley

Yarn: Merino Wool from Morehouse Farm; Originally Oat’s Sweater

Status: Row 13