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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Not too long ago I did a test knit for another designer that was for a cabled cardigan. It’s really cozy and nice but it just about broke me in a ton of different ways. I couldn’t get gauge, which I suppose is my own problem, but mainly I was somehow both bored and forced to pay attention at the same time.

Because it used the same cable all over, I always had to know what row I was on, but nine out of ten of those rows, nothing in particular was going on. So I couldn’t stop paying attention, but what I needed to attend to was boring.

It may have ruined me for knitting cabled sweaters, but maybe I just need something that’s more engaging. Like this Modern Aran Cardigan pattern from Lion Brand Yarn.

This is a reworking of an old pattern from their archives, and you can tell that form the classic look of the cables and the oversized feel (nothing cropped about this one!). It has allover cables, but like a classic Aran sweater it’s not the same cable, so you’ll have to pay attention to what row you’re on and what cable turns happen for which cables on that row.

Because of this, it’s considered an intermediate knitting pattern, but if you’re comfortable working from multiple charts at once it shouldn’t be a problem for you. There are three different charts and seven different cable moves.

Also because the pattern is so big and boxy there are only two sizes available, with a finished chest measurement of either 49 or 63 inches (that’s 124.5 or 160 cm). It’s up to you to decide how much ease you would like and whether that will work for your body.

The pattern uses worsted weight yarn (and calls for another classic, Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool). It calls for six buttons and includes pockets to make it extra cozy.

This one looks like a great winter project to make and to wear if you’re up for a bit of a challenge. You can grab the free pattern or buy a kit with the yarn needed direct from Lion Brand Yarn.

[Photo: Lion Brand Yarn]

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