Trying to duplicate colors of my favorite SAH blanket (I knit 8 of them!) swatch on #6 needle, got gauge, nice fabric too!
I was confused about making booklets and printed booklet form off my printer. Don’t do that! Just print double sided, regular paper.

Started with building 5.10, building pattern 39

Next building 5.9. Was confused with CC, GC, TC HC, but figured out they refer to carport color (garage color), tire color, hood color etc. Roof has error I think. 26 stitches reduce on each end 24 times…needs 49 stitches. Ok so I reduced 12 times. 6 ridges. But now how do I pick up 14 on this edge? I’ll try 12…I fudged it by adding extra stitches and it looks fine.
Every time I think there’s a pattern error, I sleep on it, and the next morning see that I misread the instructions! Sigh….
Oh, my! I’m on row three and realize this designer is a GENIUS! Doing the garden arch is magic! Yes, I made mistakes, but it’s only a few stitches per row so easy to redo. Just follow the instructions, read them over and over if you don’t understand, and suddenly you’ll see the magic on your needles! If you bought an early version, make sure you check errata and get latest updates!

1. The pattern is divided into well defined chapters, each of which I stapled into a “booklet” that is easy to flip from page to page. See photo.
2. Use a safety pin marker to wind up long ends needed for later
3. Use knitted cast on. On right side, tail is always on right edge.
4. I’m having trouble picking up stitches with this yarn, so I am slipping a size 1 interchangeable needle through edge stitches, then knitting them with #6 needle. Just remember to slide stitches to opposite needle after picking them all up to begin knitting row one, because those picked up stitches haven’t been knit yet. https://youtu.be/TBWeX0JA-iM?si=w5_7EAXRyFRB_J9k
5. When picking up stitches, I may have 15 on needle, so after knitting 5, M1, knit 4 more, M1, k1 = 17.
6. Don’t worry about wonky edges. When you mattress stitch the pieces together, they will be “blocked.”
7. I had trouble with tree bobbles. To keep tree stitches from falling off needle when they were near end of row, I put them on a safety pin marker while making the bobble. Also, the bobbles look better with thinner yarn. I used sport weight for them. See photo.
8. When doing vertical stripe roof VS 39, I thought I’d save trouble doing it without stripes. DO THE STRIPES! It’s is much easier to do than without stripes. Easy to keep track of where you are. There are three ridges between each stripe, but if you do solid, you can’t see them and lose count of rows.. Trust me on this!
9. The joining method used for the rows is perfect! Followed instructions, markers every 13 stitches. Much easier than I thought it would be. Do NOT be tempted to bind off instead on putting pieces on holders! It will be much easier to join.
10. I’m using my floor as a design wall, the way quilters lay out their pieces. As I’m getting to the last two rows, I realize it would be better to knit the houses without the skies so that you can rearrange them in different rows for a more pleasing color combination.
11. Draping the yarn between color sections is a great idea. The Safe at Home Blanket ended with a lot of cut ends to join. A whole pile of little snips. Hardly any with the draping method.
12. The last two rows I knit had two different gray skies. They were too similar. Because I had not sewn the rows together, I could make one of gray strips row 3 and put the lavender between the two grays. I highly recommend not adding skies and not sewing together until you have arranged all the squares to your liking.