The pond square gave me the most trouble. There are mistakes in the first 5 rows. You should have 38 stitches for the whole thing but the pattern has row 2 with 40 sts, row 3 suddenly has 37 and then row 5 has 39 sts. I basically skipped row 1’s instructions and just knit across in green and then ignored the pattern until row 6.

for the long vertical paths I cast on 9 stitches. For the narrower horizontal paths I knit 8 rows.

for the border around the blanket I picked up 120 stitches on the shorter sides and knit 10 rows. I picked up 148 stitches on the longer side and knit 10 rows.

Well, I was rather smitten with this farmmat and all the time that went into it but then I felted it…and when I say felted it, i mean REALLY felted it. I threw it in the washer without checking on it and it felted down as small as it could possibly go. It is so small now and all the texture is gone. I could cry.

This project was started back in 2008 when I was pregnant with my 2nd child. I ws just learning how to knit then. I was a part of a group of 11 other mothers from MDC. Once I received the squares I realized that 3 of them were much larger than the rest and weren’t sewing together properly. This project ended up going into hibernation for a long time. Now, 10 years later, I am finally pulling it back out for my 2 yo’s birthday coming up in January. I am redoing 6 of the 12 squares due to size or just no longer caring for the bright colors of the yarn we all chose. I am hoping to make this more neutral colored.

Last 3 photos show the old mat all other photos are of my new mat in progress.