Yarn:
For the elements: Any worsted weight yarn (or similar weight), I used Lion Brand’s Vanna’s Choice (100g/170yd) in colors Linen (A), Taupe (B), Dusty Green (C), Dusty Blue (D), and Electric Purple (E). As for yardage: A good estimate is: A: 3 balls (510yd); B: 4 balls (680yd); C: 2 balls (340yd); D: 3 balls (510yd); E: 3 balls (510yd).

For the background knit piece (shown in grey): Any worsted weight yarn (or similar weight), I used Lion Brand’s Pound of Love (454g/1020yd) in color Oxford Grey (Z). As for yardage: I used 2 balls of the Pound of Love, and had one nicely-small ball leftover that I could roll up using my ball winder. That would be about 2000yd of yarn used in total.

Gauge: Try making one square (22 st by 28 rows) and see if you can block it without stretching to a 5 inch square. There’s definitely leeway here, you can make larger or smaller squares, but it may affect how the squares fit into the background knit piece and the size of backing fabric you will need.

Needles: I used one pair of size 8 straight needles for all of the element squares. I used a very long size 8 circular needle for the background knit piece (I combined 2 long cords for the circular needle, I want to say it was 2 60in cords!).

Notions:
Stitch holders or scrap yarn (for holding unworked pieces of the background knit piece), stitch markers (for the background knit piece, unless you are a wizard at counting your stitches as you go), steam blocking materials, yarn needle, scissors

If you wish to back the blanket with fabric, like I did: Sewing machine (or needle to hand-sew, and a lot of patience!), thread (lots of it - I used mostly invisible thread), quilting pins (I used the same ones I use for blocking knits), fabric (enough to cover the full blanket back, and if you want the folded-over border like I made, add 5 inches to height and width to get a 2.5in border. This ends up being 6 yards of fabric - I bought 8 in case of mistakes).

Finished size: Approximately 60in by 100in.