Treat Yourself by Knitting the Mindful Mosaic Blanket

Every year as the weather starts to get colder I like to pull out one of my longstanding scrappy blanket knitting projects. Yes I said one of the them, because I have more than one (and actually there’s a crochet one, too!). I love being able to use what I have to make something beautiful, and one day I’ll have all those blankets finished and I’ll never be cold again.

The Mindful Mosaic Blanket from Berroco would be great to work just as a scrappy blanket, making each square a different color based on what you have left over from other projects.

But the idea behind it is a little more meaningful. It’s meant to be a mood blanket, which is like a temperature blanket but it’s about your feelings rather than the weather outside.

Choose a range of colors to represent different feelings, and stitch a square each day to reflect your mood. The sample blanket uses a worsted weight cotton yarn, but you can use whatever you like or a mix if you’re working from stash.

Instead of buying new yarn for this project, you could make it both a mood blanket and a stash busting project by choosing yarn you already have to represent different moods. For example, any purple yarn from your stash might be designated as happy, so even if the squares don’t all match you know what they meant. Or you can choose an odd ball each day that represents how you feel even if the colors don’t always match the same feeling.

I love this idea as a way to track almost a year (the pattern says it takes around 357 squares, but you could always add more) especially if you need help paying attention to your emotions. But I also think it would be a great winter project to just make with the odd balls in your house. It’s sure to make you feel a bit of comfort either way.

You can grab this free pattern from Berroco. And if you’d rather crochet your feelings, there’s a crochet version, too.

[Photo: Berroco]

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Magical Woodland Knits by Clare Garland is a few years old as I write this, but it’s such a fun book I couldn’t resist sharing it. Step into a magical forest full of realistic woodland creatures including rabbit, deer and squirrel, birds and mice, to name a few.

In all there are 12 creatures, and though they are rather small (the wolf is the largest at 14.5 inches/37 cm tall and 18.5 inches/47 cm long), they are so detailed these are definitely not projects for new knitters.

One of the smaller projects, for example, is the robin, at 5/5 inches/14 cm long. It calls for nine different kinds of yarn. Sometimes some are held together, while others are worked with on their own. This pattern only includes three pages of instructions, but the print is rather small and in that time there are six different sets of short rows. None of this makes it too difficult for a knitter with experience reading detailed patterns, working short rows and working with multiple strands of yarn at once, but it’s worth knowing going in that even for small projects you’ll need a lot of supplies and time to work on them.

These are also not meant to be children’s toys, as they can include wires and other supports that could be a danger to little ones.

The process photos often look like taxidermy on a tiny scale, with little animal pelts stretched out and tons of stitch markers showing where and how things go together.

The finished animals are so pretty it’s certainly worth the effort to stitch up these creatures. You might be tempted to make all 12 and set up your own forest scene or use them to decorate your Christmas tree. You can check out all the patterns on Ravelry.

Along the way you’ll also find a little folklore about the animals, charming drawings and pretty photos of the finished animals, too. In the back you’ll find some helpful techniques like picking up stitches, making I-cord and working short rows.

About the book: 128 pages, paperback, 12 patterns. Published 2020 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $24.99.

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