Starting with 192 + 2 (194) ch and a J hook. This should be about 25% wider than my first one. I’ve got 19 skeins to work with; the previous blanket took 13… so that should give me plenty for the blanket and enough left over for a border. Yay, math!

UPDATE: OK. That didn’t work so great. I got three inches of length out of an entire skein of yarn. No bueno. I obvious need to scale it back, so I’m going to try splitting the difference and adding about 15 stitches to the first blanket I made. That’s about 5 inches wider, and I think that will be plenty, especially since I intend to put a border on this one.

UPDATE: Officially fits and starts here. Decided to go with same width as previous blanket (OK, OK, I added THREE stitches) because I really want to have some CHUNKY stripes in it, and I only have a few skeins of the blue yarns. If I need more width, I’ll add it in the border. So for the record, now, that’s a starting chain of 156 + 2 (158) stitches, still with a J hook.

BORDER: SC in denim all the way around, except that I continued the linen stitch on the top and bottom rows so the count would come out even. Second round was denim SC in BLO. R3: Cream SC all around. R4: Peacock SC in BLO. R5: Peacock SC all around. Corners were SC ch1 SC in the stitch BEFORE the previous round’s corner, because that’s what made the angle the most square.

FINAL REFLECTION: This is just the greatest stitch. It’s so mindless and so easy. And it comes out wonderfully dense… but also stretchy. I love how tailored it is. It’s perfect for a masculine blanket or a project that you just don’t want to be frilly or overly complicated.

I’m wishing that I had had more grey and maybe the cornflower color -- I think it could do with a bit more brightness. Didn’t like the sky blue color at all, and the cream feels scratchy. Still, the cream is really necessary as an accent. I wish I had had more peacock and denim to go around the border. But overall, I’m really happy with this blanket, and it’s GREAT to have it done before July -- plenty of time before October birthday or Christmas!

Size/dimension-wise, I’m SUPER happy with it. There’s always that worry that it’ll be too long and not wide enough or vice versa, but this came out really perfect. It might be a little small for him, but I don’t think so. It’s really generous on me -- and at worst, his kids can use it for snuggling. :-)