Travel Blanket: Erie Canal Block (PATTERN)

About a year and a half ago, I realized that I had a problem.  I would stumble across quaint knitting shops, find a beautiful hank of yarn, and buy it, without having any plan for its use.  Needless to say, I quickly built up my stash.

Does anyone else have this problem?

Well, I also like to travel.  A lot.  And so it wasn't long before I came to this conclusion.

Any time I go to a new city or on a trip, I allow myself one hank of yarn.

Randall and I sitting on the roof of the boat.

This hank had to be related somehow to the trip, whether it was through color, texture, material, or a combination.  Then, I would use each hank to make one blanket square, where the pattern somehow related to the trip.  Eventually, I should have enough blocks to make a Travel Blanket!

And then, a few months later, I got engaged!

It was perfect!  I could start the travel blanket with places that Randall and I went together!

That summer, I accompanied him and his family on a self-toured Erie Canal House Boat Cruise aboard the "Cayuga."  It was wonderful!  We stopped at all sorts of places along the way and found tons of farmer's markets and cooked peach pie and played cards!

Working on the color sequence of my project on the boat.

One stop we made was in a quaint Pittsford, NY.  Now, having gone to college in the area, I knew the town, but it was an entirely different world seeing it from the canal at 6 miles and hour!  And in Pittsford, our first stop of the trip, we stumbled across (okay, I looked up) a lovely yarn store called The Yarne Source.

There, I managed to get my mother-in-law of inHIShandsart hooked on knitting.  Now, she carries around a project, too.  Fourteen of the hanks I got were for a separate project to work on that week (more on that later), but I did get one hank for the Travel Blanket.  It's a beautiful sort of canal color, and soft, a silk and cashmere blend.  And now, I have finally finished the square!  I based it off of Terry Morris Design's Rippling Water Square Pattern.

Here is the exact pattern I used:

Cast on 62 Stitches with size 7 needles.

• Row 1: Purl
• Row 2: Slip one stitch, (slip 2 to CN, hold in back, k2, k2 from CN, k4) x7, slip 2 to CN, hold in back, k2, k2 from CN, k1
• Row 3: slip 1, purl
• Row 4: slip 1, knit
• Row 5: slip 1, purl
• Row 6: slip 1, k4, (slip 2 to CN, hold in front, k2, k2 from CN, k4) x7, k1
• Row 7: slip 1, purl
• Row 8: slip 1, knit
• Row 9: slip 1, purl

Repeat Rows 2-9 until the square is the desired length.

For me, this made an 8.5 inch square.  See how it makes a beautiful rippling effect?

What do you think? Has anyone else made something like this?

Ravelry Project
Ravelry Project: Blanket