My second Safe at Home blanket, so I will try to add my hints and photos as I go along to show what I have learned so far.

1. Make a yarn organizer of some kind to keep track. This time I am using yarn purchased specifically to make this blanket, so I am using the designers color suggestions rather than random yarn from my stash of leftovers as I did for the first one. I take the colors I need out of the organizer for each house and put them in a large bowl. When I finish each house, I am careful to put the yarn back in the correct slot of the organizer.
2. If you have two balls of the same color, use one for top of window, attach second ball for bottom of window. If you don’t have another ball, cut two 28 inch lengths of yarn for the portion under the windows before you start each new house.
3. When you get to the row to change colors, for the windows and door, carry the new contrast yarn from the beginning of the row, like you would in stranded knitting. Also carry the tail ends along as for stranded knitting. This will weave them in as you go along. On the back side, twist the contrast yarns as shown for garter stitch when changing colors.
4. Pick up roof stitches with a thin crochet hook and knit the first row directly from the crochet hook, without transferring those stitches to a knitting needle first. Weave in ends as you knit, carrying yarn as for stranded knitting in right side row.
5. I am using just my interchangeable knitting needle tips for the knitting, no cord, because it’s easier with all the flipping. If you have double point needles, that would work too. However, at the end of each ground floor, I switch to corded needle rather than put stitches on a holder. On my first blanket, I did a whole row of GF before doing roofs, but this time I’m enjoying finishing a house and getting more variety with picking up stitches and doing decreases. I’m also joining the rows as I finish them. If using random stash yarn, as I did on my first blanket, it’s best to wait until all the rows are finished so you can arrange them with most attractive colors.
6. If you use long tail cast on, count the cast on row as row one, otherwise you will have 4 garter ridges instead of three.
7. Don’t worry if your edges look a little wonky. When you sew the parts together, pairing stitch by stitch, you are essentially blocking it with your joining stitches. Pretty cool!
8. Add a row of single crochet all around before picking up edges for border. Start crochet at bottom right corner RIGHT side. Makes picking up stitches easier and looks nice! Pick up stitches by going through the crochet loop on the WRONG side. First knit row will be on the RIGHT side.
9. Russian bind off: knit 2tog thru back loop, put stitch on left needle and continue k2togbl.. Do this bind off on the RIGHT side.
10. I used about a full ball of dark gray for the garter border.
11. Took me 8 blankets to figure out how to make a perfect join between strips. Each square is about six inches wide, so I took a ruler and put a pin marker at every inch along the sky edge. Since there are 24 garter house ridges to join, I divided 24by 6 =4 stitches per inch. Each inch of sky should have 4 stitches to join to the 4 garter ridges of house. Perfect! I will post a photo when I join the next strip.

Total weight of completed blanket 1178 grams.
Total weight of clippings 59 grams. (Great for stuffing toys I knit. I like clippings much better than polyester for stuffing)

I had considered trying to make the roof and sky in one piece, but I enjoy picking up stitches and I feel like it straightens out all the wonky stitches doing it the way the designer suggests.

Loved making the first blanket so much from scraps, that I ordered wool for a second blanket. Willow yarns Daily Worsted Superwash 100% wool.
COLORS USED: ONE BALL EACH: ocean, periwinkle, sterling, ice, lichen, beeswax, ballet, leafy, pumpkin, lodestone, zinnia, butter, coral bell, clay. TWO balls of stormy heather.
My own little house (that I live in!) was a mess for a month from making the first blanket, with dozens of random balls of yarn to choose from. So I came up with a yarn organizer for this project. Three soda cases stapled together, wrapping paper glued around outside. Hope this helps!
Just got my new washer with a hand wash cycle. After putting it through the wash it’s expanded to 60x52 “.