L.A. Is My Beat: The Welcome Blanket

Owner of The Little Knittery (moving from Atwater to Los Feliz soon), Kat Coyle posted about another community project. Kat is the designer of the Pussy Hat for the PussyHat Project that was globally successful last winter.

The new project is called "The Welcome Blanket." Read all of the details about it HERE. I like the idea of creating a special blanket for a newcomer to our country!

From The Welcome Blanket Website: The proposed border wall between the United States and Mexico is almost 2000 miles long. Imagine if the massive distance of this wall was re-conceptualized and re-contextualized not to divide, but to include. Instead of a wall, a concrete line, to keep people out, what if lines of yarn became 3,500,640 yards of blankets to welcome people in?

Kat's pattern for The Welcome Blanket is called Come Together Blanket. It's an easy knit pattern made up of sixteen 10-inch squares for a 40-inch square blanket. The squares are knit on the diagonal and can be arranged in many different pleasing patterns. You can use any weight yarn, many colors, two colors, or any combination. A crochet version of this design is also on the website, interpreted by Amy O'Neill Houck.

Kat Coyle's "Come Together" Blanket

The squares can be arranged is so many different designs. I found a few examples online:

I found a crocheted blanket design online using the Corner2Corner or diagonal stitch. In the photo below, the squares seem to be smaller, but I'm making each of my squares 10 inches across.

I call this a QuiltGhan

Ellen's Template

I've finished my squares for the red, white and blue Welcome Blanket. Now, I just have to sew them together.

The blankets that are turned in to The Welcome Blanket Project will be displayed in a show at the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago beginning July 18, 2017 through December 17, 2017. When the show closes, the blanket packages will be distributed to refugees and other immigrants through resettlement organizations.

The deadline for mailing your blanket is September 5, 2017. You have the rest of the summer to knit and/or crochet! Read more about it HERE. There will be free shipping too!

I've already started some granny square diagonals for a second blanket using stash yarn. The squares are portable, fast and easy.