This pattern is knitted in panels/strips with the joined edges looking like cables. Each week another panel pattern will be released.

The pattern calls for DK (8Ply) yarn to be doubled throughout on 7mm needles. I am going to use Fingering (4Ply) alpaca yarn doubled on 4.5mm needles so my sizing will be different from the pattern.

Finished blanket is approximately 115cm (46”) wide x 150cm tall (60”). Total weight of blanket is 1406g (or 49.6 oz).

Now that I understand how the designer matched the total number of cast on sts with the border strips I can look through my reference books of cable stitches and customize the blanket.

21 Dec 2016: Submitted this project to the 2017 Royal Canberra Show.
25 Feb 2017: This blanket received third prize (large hand knitted item) at the Canberra Royal Show 2017.

Photos (from top to bottom):

Bottom-most photo is from the pattern page.

1. Finished blanket on a double bed
2. Project bag holding all the red strips
3. Photo from Canberra Show 2017 (Third Prize)
4. Finished blanket on a double bed
5. Panels joined (excepting border and corner strips)
6. Panels 1 through 8 (not joined)
7. Border and Corner strips
8. Panel #13
9. Panel #12
10. Panel #11
11. Panel #10
12. Panel #9
13. Panel #8
14. Panel #8 (first attempt with 2 different pink yarns)
15. Panel #7
16. Panel #6
17. Panel #5
18. Panel #4 (31 repeats) includes project bag I made
19. Panel #3
20. Panel #2
21. Panel #2
22. Panel #1 (complete)
23. Panel #1 (2 repeats)
24. Fire Engine Red Alpaca cone
25. Pink Alpaca cone
26. Mal Pink Alpaca cone

Panel 1
03 Jun 2016: Took 2 x 100g off the cone and wound into 2 x centre pull cakes. Started with 5.0mm needles but the knitting was too loose so I went down to 4.5mm needles instead. I was able to complete 2 pattern repeats. I am not that happy with the edging as it is curling over and is not how I do my slip stitch edging but I will persevere.
04 Jun 2016: Knitted another 8 pattern repeats today (for a total of 10 so far). Once I got into the hang of doing cables again the needles seemed to fly. I do have to make sure that I catch the two yarns every time but I can usually see where I have missed a yarn when I do the wrong side of the panel. I can correct myself easily then but if I don’t catch it I have been leaving the single strand alone (this has only happened once so far).
05 Jun 2016: I completed the 14th pattern repeat before binding off (24 row repeat x 14 repeats equals 336 rows). The strip is 50”/125cm long and 4”/10cm wide and used 132g of yarn.

Panel 2
07 Jun 2016: The second week’s pattern is now available and I am starting with 5mm needles and then switching to 4.5mm needles. Did 15 pattern repeats before finishing for the evening.
08 Jun 2016: Finished the last 15 pattern repeats on Panel #2. Measured against the first panel and I still need to do another 15 pattern repeats on Panel #2.
10 Jun 2016: Took 2 x 100g off the cone and wound into 2 x centre pull cakes and added on as each yarn came to an end. Finished knitting Panel #2 - 8 row repeat x 45 equals 360 rows. The strip is 50”/125cm long and 2.5”/6cm wide and used 82g of yarn.

Panel 3
14 Jun 2016. The third week’s pattern is now available. I am again starting with 5mm needles to do the crochet cast on and then switching to the 4.5mm needles to do the pattern. Completed 6 repeats before finishing for the evening.
15-16 Jun 2016: Completed 24 repeats (total of 30).
17 Jun 2016: Completed another 28 repeats (total 58) during my lunch break. Panel now measures 35”/89cm.
18 Jun 2016: Finished knitting when I reached approximately 50”/125cm and I was on the 4th row of the pattern on the 85th repeat (4 rows repeat x 85 repeats equals 340 rows). Cast off. I used 62g of yarn.

Panel 4
02-03 Jul 2016: Finally got around to downloading panel 4’s pattern. This is a horseshoe cable knitted over 8 rows. I was able to do 10 repeats while watching a couple of movies today. Continued knitting in the evening on Sunday as well after sewing up a couple of project bags. A lady at work is interested in purchasing a YarnIt from the US and I said I would try and make a bag for it and she is interested in a SockSack as well.
04 Jul 2016: Knitted during my lunch break and on my return home after work. Finished for the evening after completing the 25th pattern repeat.
06-07 Jul 2016: Knitted a few more repeats of the pattern. Strip/panel now measures 34”/87cm and has 31 repeats. I’m going to sit in front of the TV and watch some episodes of Who Do You Think You Are that I have stored on my Foxtel IQ while I knit tonight to see if I can get closer to finishing this strip. Well I ended up doing about another 4 repeats before I started another project The Time Traveller’s Shawl.
07 Jul 2016: Did some more knitting at work. I have now done 37 repeats which is about 11”/27.5cm to go.
08 Jul 2016: I did a couple of more repeats at work during my lunch break. Didn’t work on it when I go home.
12 Jul 2016: Did a couple of repeats at work. Measured how much I had done and it was just over 40”. Looking at the way that the cable reacts I believe that I should do an extra repeat after I reach 50”. The cable seems to stretch close to the needles and is closer together way down at the beginning. If I don’t want to have to stretch some of the panel to match the other panels then I think I will have to do that extra repeat. Cast off purlwise after the 46th repeat (8 row repeat x 46 repeats = 368 rows).
I used 137g of yarn to do this panel.
06 Oct 2016: Unraveled 4 repeats so that I had 336 rows. Yarn used is now 122g.

Panel 5
04 Jul 2016: Printed off panel 5’s pattern ready for when I finish panel 4.
12 Jul 2016: Took another 2 x 100g off the cone and wound into 2 x centre pull cakes to be added on as each yarn came to an end. I will start the panel when I get to work as I want to show a couple of other knitters how to do the crochet cast on.
13 Jul 2016: Cast on the 26sts using the crochet method. I was only able to do one repeat during my lunch break after showing my friend how to do this method of cast on. Did a half repeat while I was waiting for the shuttle bus back to my office after a meeting. When I got home I was able to finish off the repeat that I started earlier and do another 2 repeats (4 in total).
14 Jul 2016: I was able to complete 3 repeats during my lunch break. Let’s see how many I can do tonight. Only did another 3 repeats while watching TV at home (10 repeats in total).
18 Jul 2016: Went to the Bus Depot Markets on the weekend and bought some more alpaca from the same stall as the fire engine red colour. Unfortunately they didn’t have any more red so I bought a pink and a mal pink for when the red ran out. Knitted a couple of repeats at work.
19 Jul 2016: Finished knitting when the panel was approx 50” (24 row repeat x 15 repeats = 360 rows). Cast off loosely. I used 93g of yarn to do this panel.
06 Oct 2016: Unraveled 1 repeat so my row count was back down at 336. Now used 85g of yarn. It still looks longer than the panels I have crocheted together but when I count the number of rows I have the right number.

Panel 6
07 Jul 2016: Printed off panel 6’s pattern ready for when I finish panel 4 and 5.
20-21 Jul 2016: Cast on during my lunch break on Thursday and knitted a couple of repeats. Didn’t do any knitting that night. Did a couple of more repeats on Friday during my lunch break and again didn’t knit anything that night.
24 Jul 2016: Did quite a few more repeats after cleaning the house while watching the Mummy movies again. Finished the 40th repeat at the end of the 3rd Mummy movie. Only about 15-20 more repeats to go.
25 Jul 2016: During my lunch break and while waiting at the dentist for a filling I was able to finish the 47th repeat measuring 38”/96.5cm long x 2.5”/6.5cm wide.
26 Jul 2016: Did a few more repeats during my lunch break. I could have done more but I ran out of one of the yarn lengths. Unwound some yarn from the cone into centre pull yarn cake and then finished the panel after work (6 row repeat x 61 repeats = 366 rows). Cast off loosely in purl. I used 71g of yarn.

Panel 7
13 Jul 2016: Printed off panel 7’s pattern ready for when I finish panel 5 and 6.
26-28 Jul 2016: Cast on the 17sts required for this panel and was able to complete 4 repeats before stopping for the evening. On Wednesday and Thursday I only knitted during my lunch break. So far I have done 15 pattern repeats.
01-04 Aug 2016: Didn’t knit anything for this project over the weekend. During my lunch breaks this week I knitted a few repeats each day. So far I have done 24 repeats in total.
13-15 Aug 2016: Took a few days off from this project but picked it up again over the weekend. I have now done 34 repeats in total. Had to weave in a new yarn as one had finished. Luckily I had an extra yarn cake ready in my bag. This will be the last totally red strip I do. The remainder will be with either one red / one pink or both pink yarns held together. I was able to finish the panel/strip after work - 8 row repeat x 44 repeats = 352 rows in total using 56g of yarn.

Panel 8
19 Jul 2016: Printed off panel 8’s pattern ready for when I finish panel 6 and 7.
15 Aug 2016: Started on this strip using 2 pink yarns doubled (one pink and one pink mal). I was able to do about 4 repeats before stopping for the night. The cables are not showing up very well with the speckled effect of the two yarns. I am going to frog and re-do in just the plain pink.
23 Aug 2016: Finally frogged the little I had done and restarted in plain dark pink. It looks better once I got the right panel pattern. Did three repeats before finishing for the evening.
24 Aug 2016: I’ve now done 40 repeats total. This cable is very dense and similar to panel #2.
25 Aug 2016: Made another drawstring bag with external pockets after work. After that I knitted another 25 pattern repeats.
26 Aug 2016: Knitted another 15 rows for a total of 80 rows. I still have a few more inches to go to match the other strips.
27-28 Aug 2016: Finished the strip after 4 row repeat x 102 repeats = 408 rows (I am going to have to unravel a few repeats so that it equals close to 336 rows). Laid the panels next to each other in order and so far the blanket is about 20” across.
06 Oct 2016: Unraveled 18 repeats to get back to get back to 336 rows. Used 74g of yarn.

Panel 9
26 Jul 2016: Printed off panel 9’s pattern ready for when I finish panels 7 and 8.
28 Aug 2016: Started on this strip using two strands of dark pink. Did 10 repeats of the pattern.
31 Aug 2016: Did a few more repeats at work.
18 Sep 2016: Haven’t done any knitting on this project for a couple of weeks. I need to get cracking and wind off some more wool from the cones to use as I have run out of one strand. Wound off the remaining dark pink and while I was doing that I also wound off two 100g (approx) yarn cakes of the mal pink too.
19 Sep 16: Took this to work and did about 4 pattern repeats during my lunch break. Then did about another 8 pattern repeats when I got home. I had to weave in new yarn for each of the strands (at different times) and am now on the last yarn cakes in this colour. I now only have about 30cm left on this panel.
20 Sep 2016: Knitted about 5 pattern repeats during my lunch break.
21 Sep 2016: Finished the panel. Used 68g. This is an 8 rows repeat for which I have done 42 repeats equalling 336 rows.

Panel 10
03 Aug 2016: Printed off panel 10’s pattern ready for when I finish panels 7-9.
21 Sep 2016: I don’t have enough fire engine red or dark pink to do this wide panel. I am going to do it with 1 strand of dark pink and 1 strand of mal pink. Knitted 3 repeats after work.
28 Sep 2016: All up did 3 repeats before stopping for the night.
30 Sep 2016: Saw that I had accidentally done a plain knit row before the 4th pattern repeat. Decided that I will make this part of the pattern, ie do a plain row every third repeat. Did the extra plain row before doing another 3 pattern repeats.
01-06 Oct 2016: I have now completed 33 repeats (equalling 286 rows as this is a 8 row repeat) so I should only have to do another 5 repeats to get to row 336.
07 Oct 2016: Finished the last 5 repeats after work. Used 126g of yarn.

Panel 11
15 Aug 2016: Printed off panel 11’s pattern ready for when I finish panels 7-10.
07 Oct 2016: Cast on with one strand of Mal Pink and one strand of Dark Pink and was able to do 3 repeats before finishing for the night. I calculate that I will need to do 14 repeats for this panel (to reach 336 rows). This panel looks very similar to Panel #5.
08 Oct 2016: Started knitting just after lunch and was able to do another 8 repeats by the early evening. I may even be able to finish this panel tonight while watching a couple of movies. Finished the 14th repeat when I cast off. Used 86g of yarn.

Panel 12
23 Aug 2016: Printed off panel 12’s pattern ready for when I finish panels 7-11.
09 Oct 2016: Cast on using one strand of fire engine red and one strand of dark pink. I will need to do 56 repeats to get 336 rows. I was able to finish 47 repeats before finishing for the day.
10 Oct 2016: Finished the last repeat and cast off. Used 64g of yarn.

Panel 13
23 Aug 2016: Printed off panel 13’s pattern ready for when I finish panels 7-12.
10 Oct 2016: Immediately after finishing Panel #12 I started on the next panel. Did 2 repeats before falling asleep. When I woke up again 2 1/2 hrs later I was able to do another 4 repeats before finishing for the night.
11-12 Oct 2016: Finished all 42 repeats to reach 336 rows of knitting. Used 56g of yarn.

Corner Blocks and Border Strip
18 Sep 2016: Printed off the patterns for the corner blocks and border strip ready for when I finish panels 9-13.
13 Oct 2016: Finished all four corner blocks with 2 strands of fire engine red (total 15g). Started on one of the border strips again with 2 strands of fire engine red. I was able to do 80 rows of moss stitch before finishing for the evening.
14 Oct 2016: Continued with first border strip. Did 50 rows during my lunch break (I’ve now done 130 rows). Finished another 130 rows (total of 260).
15 Oct 2016: Finished the first border strip (total 49g). I only have enough red to do one more border strip.
16 Oct 2016: Started the second border strip in red. I’m not going to count until I get closer to the end.
20 Oct 2016: Knitted several more rows during my lunch break at work. Did some more knitting after work while watching a couple of DVDs. I counted how many rows I have done so far and I have already reach 260 rows - only another 76 rows to go before finishing this border strip.
21 Oct 2016: Finished the second border strip. I used 50g of yarn. Not counting the rows until I got near the end seemed to make the knitting go faster. I will have to look at the yarn I have to see what I am going to do for the top and bottom border strips.
30 Oct 2016: Crochet cast on 15sts using 1 dark park and 1 red strand of yarn for the 3rd border strip (this one will be on the bottom of the blanket). Knitted about 20 rows before completing for the day.
09 Nov 2016: It’s been a while since I did any knitting on this project. I knitted several inches and still have quite a few left to do.
16 Nov 2016: Knitted about 20 rows on the third border strip which means that I am over 140 rows (out of 336). When I got home from work I decided to finish off the 3rd border strip and start on the 4th. Finished for the night after I had done about 30 rows on the final knitted border strip.
17-18 Nov 2016: Knitted about 120 rows. Only 216 to go.
19 Nov 2016: Ran out of red yarn 12 rows from the end of the last border strip. Finished it using Dark Pink. In total I used 51g for the last border strip.
13 Jan 2017: Undid the last few rows of Dark Pink on the last border strip and used some of the red that I had used for the crochet join to finish of this strip.

Joining
27-28 Sep 2016: Started to join the strips together using the crochet join method. Was unable to access the video because my internet is so slow but figured it out as I had previously watched it. I had to skip a few chains on strip 2 so that it would match the length of strip 3. I tried to space out the skips so that they are not obvious and the join doesn’t pull or bunch up anywhere. Crocheting with 2 strands of alpaca 4-ply / fingering weight yarn is a bit of a nightmare hence only being able to do one join (panel 2 to panel 3). When I get off work tonight I will try and join another panel. After work I joined panel 1 to the right of panel 3 - only had to fudge a couple of stitches to ensure the panels were joined evenly. All up I was able to join 5 panels together.
15 Oct 2016: Joined 12 strips in total. I have one red cable (Panel #5) to join on and then when I have finished knitting the four side strips and four corners I will need to join them as well.
19 Nov 2016: Joined the panel #5 to the right hand side of panel #4 and joined the end squares to the top and bottom of two of the side border strips. Tried joining my first border strip on to the blanket but found that it wasn’t working. Undid it until I can lay it out on a clean floor to see what is happening. Figured out that for each side st on the border strip it will be equivalent to 2sts for the cast on/cast off end of each blanket strip.
20 Nov 2016: Printed out little bits of paper with the number of the strip/panel with how many sts were used to cast on/off. I am going to be taking this in to work on Tuesday to show a friend how to do the crochet join so I am not going to do any work on it today.
21 Nov 2016: Joined the top and bottom border strips.
22 Nov 2016: Joined one of the side border strips.
24 Nov 2016: Joined the last side border strip while showing my work colleague how to do the crochet join.
13 Jan 2017: Decided that I didn’t like how the double-stranded pink and the dark pink/red crochet joins showed through the double-stranded red strips (both on the side panels and the cabled panels). Undid those joins and now I can use some of the red to finish off the side panel where I had run out and done it in plain double-stranded dark pink. I have some 8ply/DK alpaca in red that matches so I will use that to rejoin all the pieces back together.
14-23 Jan 2017: Rejoined all pieces except one side strip. Wove in the majority of the ends (used the pink yarn ends to wrap around the red crochet join to disguise the colour).