Blanket has a Back!

I made myself do it -- I added a back to the Counting Pane afghan. I used a lovely soft gray flannel. This fabric happened to be 60 inches wide. This meant I didn't have to have a seam in the back of this blanket. I had dithered about using a knit or fleece fabric, which would have a similar "give" as the knitted afghan, or using a woven fabric that would add stability. In the end, I couldn't find any fleece that was the right color and thin or fine enough not to make the blanket too bulky. Putting a woven fabric with a more fluid knit wasn't easy, but now that it's done, I think it'll make the afghan more stable, which should be a good thing.

The hardest part was getting the fabric cut to the right size. It was hard to get the afghan laid out so I could either measure it, or use it as a "pattern". Once that was done, I stitched a half inch around the flannel fabric and turned the edge under. I then carefully (and nearly invisibly) sewed it around the edge of the blanket (inside the border). Then I laid it all flat and pinned the two layers together at the intersection of each square's border. Then I tied every other intersection, using the gray yarn for my ties.

Tomorrow I'm going to show it off at the elementary school I work at. Then next week, it goes off to college.