Knitting Maps - How Hard Could It Be?

In which Wren learns a valuable lesson about her own limitations, and finds a novel use for The Cat's ears...

Two squares here - one is the second one I knitted, the other is the most recent.  The (quite obvious) thing they have in common?  They're both maps.  (I'm pretty sure you'll have managed to work that one out for yourself...)  They were chosen for the Boyfriend Blanket as they are both very special places for him.

These also provide a useful illustration of the extremely common practice of mine - getting far too ambitious about what I can actually practically achieve.  "Oh!" says I "Of course I can knit a sofa sized blanket.  How hard could that possibly be?"  "Oh, knitting a map of Australia into an Afghan square is a great idea, how hard could it possibly be?"*  Now, to an experienced knitter, the answer is probably "Not hard at all, shut up Wren, you simpleton".  But I'm still on (just) 6 months knitting experience, and this probably was quite a bit beyond me.

However, I think they came out really well - this is really testament to the designs, which were both excellent.  The intarsia was definitely tricky - the coastlines are very fiddly! - but I discovered a useful form of assistance.  The Cat was, as usual, sprawled out over my lap during the entire process - snoring loudly and generally getting in the way.  I struck upon the genius idea of using the top of his head a yarn divider, placing the wool 'tails' on either side of his ears to keep them separate.  He was gainfully employed for once (albeit asleep), and I kept my wool neat and tangle free.  I really wish I could have taken a photo, but he had me firmly pinned in place...

This is the Australia map - it even has Tasmania there at the bottom!  The pattern is by Sarah Bradberry and is available for free from her fab site Knitting-and.com.  She has tons of free patterns there, it's well worth a look.  Her version uses seed stitch for the ocean - it looks really pretty, but I kept mine in plain stocking stitch to fit in with the look of the rest of the blanket.

And here's the British Isles map - once again, the detail is fabulous - it even has a tiny Anglesey! Amazing how you can show so much with so few stitches...  The pattern is by Marilyn Wallace and available for free on her Knitting Heaven On Earth blog.  I was a bit worried when I started this as the pattern is written, not charted, and I always worry about not being able to see exactly where I'm 'heading'.  However, as you can see, the pattern knits up perfectly!

The Australia Map is knitted in Hayfield Bonus Chunky 936, and King Cole Chunky 936.
The British Isles Map is knitted in King Cole Chunky 557 and 936.

*See also: "Oh! Doing a full time Masters degree and working full time at the same time, how hard could it possibly be?" "Oh! Finishing writing my thesis in the 2 months following a shoulder replacement, whilst starting a new job, how hard could it possibly be?" etc etc etc...