Follow your sense of adventure with our Color Brick Road Blanket pattern, where every brick in the road is a beautiful surprise thanks to our vibrant Linen Quill Minis!

Color Brick Road Blanket | Purl Soho

This wonderful whiz of a project couldn’t be more fun to knit! You’ll work one column at a time, brick by brick, holding two different Linen Quill Minis together. Each brick is super quick to knit in simple garter stitch, and you’ll find yourself racing along to the next one. As you work each new brick in each new column, you’ll pick up stitches along the edge of the previous column for a nifty no-sew join.

Color Brick Road Blanket | Purl Soho

All this over-the-rainbow fun comes from our Linen Quill Minis, a bundle of 40 different 25-gram balls of our popular fingering-weight Linen Quill. Wool, alpaca, and linen (oh my!) make this yarn just the right mix of springy, soft, and rustic, with incredible depth of color in every Mini. You’ll need just one bundle to make the small throw shown here, or two bundles to make a larger throw.

Color Brick Road Blanket | Purl Soho

The organizing color principle behind the Color Brick Road Blanket is value, aka light and dark. Just squint at the finished blanket (below) to see the zigzag-y diagonal stripes created by alternating pairs of light colors with pairs of dark colors.

Color Brick Road Blanket | Purl Soho

Whether light or dark, some marled color combos read as soft washes, while others offer a zingy contrast. Below, you can see what happens when Lemon Lime meets Pale Mushroom, Grasshopper Green joins Red Poppy, and Pink Pop combines with Wheat Flour.

Color Brick Road Blanket | Purl Soho

The Color Brick Road Blanket pattern details the color pairs, but you follow your own road when it comes to the order of the bricks, randomly choosing each pair from bags of light and dark Minis. Once you’ve used every pair, you’ll start over and discover a different serendipitous order!

Color Brick Road Blanket | Purl Soho

Pick up a bundle or two of Linen Quill Minis for your own Color Brick Road Blanket, and have so much fun follow, follow, following wherever it leads you!

If you love the yarn used in this project, you’ll love all of our other yarn, too! Explore our 35+ lovingly created yarn collections, in nearly every natural fiber and spectacular color you can imagine… Only available here at Purl Soho’s online yarn shop!

Color Brick Road Blanket | Purl Soho

Designed for Purl Soho by Joelle Hoverson and Gaby Bush.

Please Note: We recently noticed there are a couple of similar blanket patterns on Ravelry that we’d like to shout out: Kay F Jones’s awesome Jelly Roll Blanket and Christiane Burkhard’s gorgeous Long Live The Scraps pattern. While there are some design and construction differences between our blankets, we imagine that, like us, Kay and Christiane were also inspired by the traditional Streak o’ Lightning Quilt pattern. We hope you’ll check out their versions, as well, and all of Kay and Christiane‘s other knitting patterns, too… Lots of amazing things to knit!

Share your progress and connect with the community by tagging your pics with #PurlSoho, #PurlSohoBusyHands, #PurlSohoColorBrickRoadBlanket, and #PurlSohoLinenQuill. We can’t wait to see what you make!

Materials

Color Brick Road Blanket | Purl Soho
  • 1 (2) 40-Color Bundle(s) of Purl Soho’s Linen Quill Minis, 50% highland wool, 35% alpaca, and 15% linen. Each bundle of this fingering-weight yarn is approximately 4,360 yards/ 1000 grams; approximately 3,675 (7,690) total yards required.
  • US 7 (4.5 mm), 24-inch circular knitting needles
  • A stitch marker

GAUGE

20 stitches and 40 rows (20 ridges) = 4 inches in garter stitch with yarn doubled

SIZES

Small Throw (Large Throw)

Finished Dimensions: 36 inches wide x 42 inches long (48 inches wide x 66 inches long)

Sample: We knit the Small Throw size.

NOTES

COLOR ORDER

Throughout this pattern you will hold two strands of yarn as you work, creating combinations that have a dark or light value. You will alternate blocks of Light Pairs and Dark Pairs as you knit. Here’s how…

Grab four vessels (we used paper bags), two for the Light Pairs and two for the Dark Pairs. Put the following ten Light Pairs into one bag, and the ten Dark Pairs into another bag (if you’ve lost any labels, you can refer to the Color Guide included with your bundle) …

BAG OF LIGHT PAIRS

  • Buttercup Yellow + Birds Egg Blue
  • Butterscotch Yellow + Peony Pink
  • Pale Mushroom + Lemon Lime
  • Eggshell Blue + Reed Gray
  • Magnolia Blossom + Pale Oats
  • Pink Pop + Wheat Flour
  • Baked Earth + Lavender Opal
  • Turmeric Yellow + Peachy Pink
  • Super Orange + Golden Wheat
  • Bright Flamingo + Pale Celery

BAG OF DARK PAIRS

  • Chestnut Red + Purple Clematis
  • Fresh Pickle + Blue Blue
  • Lychee Pink + Pine Cone
  • Kiln Red + Clover Green
  • Golden Green + Stillwater Blue
  • Raw Sienna + True Turquoise
  • Crocus Bud + Kettle Black
  • Stonewall Gray + Blue Pansy
  • Fresh Nutmeg + Cobalt Blue
  • Grasshopper Green + Red Poppy

To begin, close your eyes and select one color from the Light bag, then find that color’s assigned pair. Use this pair to work the first block of the pattern, then set these colors aside in the second Light bag. For the next color block, repeat this process with the Dark bag, choosing a pair at random and placing it in the second Dark bag when you finish the block. Continue to pick and knit pairs until you have used all 20 color pairs once, and your original bags are empty. Now use your full bags of Light and Dark colors to do it all again! Repeat this process until your blanket is complete.

NOTE: You will use all 20 color pairs at least 4 (9) times, but 10 (4) pairs will be used 5 (10) times.

SLIP STITCHES

Slip all slipped stitches purlwise with yarn in front (wyif).

PATTERN

COLUMN 1

With a Light Pair (see Color Order) and using a basic Long Tail Cast On, cast on 15 stitches.

Set-Up Row (wrong side): Slip 1 (see Notes), knit to end of row.

*Row 1 (right side): Knit to end of row.

Row 2 (wrong side): Slip 1, knit to end of row.

Repeat Rows 1 and 2 until you have 30 ridges of current color pair on the right side, ending with Row 2.

Cut yarns.

Continuing in Color Order, alternating Light Pairs and Dark Pairs as you go, repeat from * 6 (10) more times, ending with a Light Pair. Do not cut yarns after last row. [7 (11) blocks; 210 (330) total ridges; 30 ridges per color pair]

With right side facing you, bind off all stitches.

Weave in Column 1 ends.

COLUMN 2

NOTE: For help picking up stitches, please visit our Picking Up Stitches Tutorial and scroll down to the Along A Vertical Edge: Garter Stitch, Between Ridges video.

With a Dark Pair if the last pair you knit was Light or with a Light Pair if the last pair you knit was Dark, use a basic Long Tail Cast On to cast on 15 stitches, then pick up and knit 15 stitches along right selvage of first block of previous column. Be sure to start picking up between cast-on row and first garter ridge, and then pick up one stitch between each garter ridge. [30 total stitches]

Set-Up Row (wrong side): Knit to last 14 stitches, place marker (pm), knit to end of row.

Row 1 (right side): Knit to marker, slip marker (sm), knit 2 together (k2tog), turn work. [1 stitch decreased]

Row 2 (wrong side): Knit to end of row, slipping marker as you come to it.

Repeat Rows 1 and 2 thirteen more times until you have 15 ridges in current color pair, ending with Row 2. [16 stitches remain; 2 stitches to left of marker with right side facing you]

Cut yarns.

**Pick-Up Row (right side): With next color pair, knit to marker, sm, k2tog, pick up and knit 30 stitches from right selvage of previous column, beginning one ridge above where you finished picking up last time. [45 stitches]

Beginning with Row 2, repeat Rows 1 and 2 until you have 30 ridges in current color pair, ending with Row 2. [16 stitches remain; 2 stitches to left of marker with right side facing you]

Cut yarns.

Repeat from ** 5 (9) more times.

For last color pair of the column…

Next Row (right side): With next color pair, knit to marker, sm, k2tog, pick up and knit 15 stitches from right selvage of previous column, beginning one ridge above where you finished picking up last time and ending just before last ridge. [30 stitches]

Beginning with Row 2, repeat Rows 1 and 2 until you have 15 ridges in current color pair, ending with Row 2. [16 stitches remain; 2 stitches to left of marker with right side facing you]

With right side facing you, bind off to marker, remove marker, k2tog, bind off remaining stitch.

Weave in Column 2 ends.

COLUMN 3

With a Dark Pair if the last pair you knit was Light or with a Light Pair if the last pair you knit was Dark, use a basic Long Tail Cast On to cast on 15 stitches, then pick up and knit 30 stitches along right selvage of first block of previous column. [45 total stitches]

Set-Up Row (wrong side): Knit to last 14 stitches, pm, knit to end of row.

Row 1 (right side): Knit to marker, sm, k2tog, turn work. [1 stitch decreased]

Row 2 (wrong side): Knit to end of row, slipping marker as you come to it.

Repeat Rows 1 and 2 until you have 30 ridges in current color pair, ending with Row 2. [16 stitches remain; 2 stitches to left of marker with right side facing you]

Cut yarns.

***Pick-Up Row (right side): With next color pair, knit to marker, sm, k2tog, pick up and knit 30 stitches from right selvage of previous column, beginning one ridge above where you finished picking up last time. [45 stitches]

Beginning with Row 2, repeat Rows 1 and 2 until you have 30 ridges in current color pair, ending with Row 2. [16 stitches remain; 2 stitches to left of marker with right side facing you]

Cut yarns.

Repeat from *** 5 (9) more times, except do not cut yarns after last row.

With right side facing you, bind off to marker, remove marker, k2tog, bind off remaining stitch.

Weave in Column 3 ends.

CONTINUE

Continuing to work in Color Order, repeat Columns 2 and 3 four (6) more times until you have 11 (15) columns total.

LAST COLUMN

With a Dark Pair if the last pair you knit was Light or with a Light Pair if the last pair you knit was Dark, use a basic Long Tail Cast On to cast on 15 stitches, then pick up and knit 15 stitches along right selvage of first block of previous column. [30 total stitches]

Set-Up Row (wrong side): Knit to last 14 stitches, pm, knit to end of row.

Row 1 (right side): Slip 1, knit to marker, sm, k2tog, turn work. [1 stitch decreased]

Row 2 (wrong side): Knit to end of row, slipping marker as you come to it.

Repeat Rows 1 and 2 until you have 15 ridges in current color pair, ending with Row 2. [16 stitches remain; 2 stitches to left of marker with right side facing you]

Cut yarns.

****Pick-Up Row (right side): Slip 1 and move yarn to back; joining next color pair, knit to marker, sm, k2tog, pick up and knit 30 stitches from right selvage of previous column, beginning one ridge above where you finished picking up last time. [45 stitches]

Beginning with Row 2, repeat Rows 1 and 2 until you have 30 ridges in current color pair, ending with Row 2. [16 stitches remain; 2 stitches to left of marker with right side facing you]

Cut yarns.

Repeat from **** 5 (9) more times.

Next Row (right side): Slip 1 and move yarn to back; joining next color pair, knit to marker, sm, k2tog, pick up and knit 15 stitches from right selvage of previous column, beginning one ridge above where you finished picking up last time. [30 stitches]

Beginning with Row 2, repeat Rows 1 and 2 until you have 15 ridges in current color pair, ending with Row 2. [16 stitches remain; 2 stitches to left of marker with right side facing you]

With right side facing you, bind off to marker, remove marker, k2tog, bind off remaining stitch.

Weave in remaining ends and gently wet block to finished dimensions.

Color Brick Road Blanket | Purl Soho
Color Brick Road Blanket | Purl Soho

LEARN ABOUT LINEN QUILL MINIS + ALL OUR BEAUTIFUL YARNS

Express your love of color with Linen Quill Minis! A unique opportunity to play, these 25-gram balls are mini versions of our super popular Linen Quill, a fingering-weight yarn that is a wonderful blend of 35% alpaca, 50% wool, and 15% linen. Pick up our spectacular 40-Color Bundle or one of our breathtaking 20-Color Bundles and go wild!

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Looking for more inspiration? Explore all of our free knitting patterns and knitting tutorials, buy one of our many knitting kits and yarn bundles, and shop for beautiful yarn. We have over 35 gorgeous natural fiber yarns in 100’s of magnificent colors, designed to bring integrity, beauty, and joy to your next knitting project and only available at Purl Soho!