I used to really hate picking up stitches. This is because I was doing it wrong; I thought I had to get existing stitches on the needle and then knit into them, rather than just poking a needle through and picking up a loop of the new yarn. A quick consultation of the first Stitch’n’Bitch put me right. but if I had any lingering problems with picking up stitches, this blanket would have cured it: over 90 squares and all but the first row must be picked up and knitted onto previous squares.
It’s not doing much for any dislike of weaving in ends, though. Shelly Kang, who knows about mitered-square blankets if anyone does, says that the ridges where stitches are picked up are perfect places to hide woven-in ends. She’s right as far as that goes; my problem is that they just don’t stay there very well. The reason is that unlike Shelly (who is clearly insane, because she’s knitting a couch-sized through with Koigu), I’m not knitting in wool, which tends to grab onto itself. My yarn is slippery cotton, mercerized to make it even more slippery. This will, I hope, make it much easier to clean from the inevitable vicissitudes of life with a baby, but it doesn’t do much for keeping the ends in place. There’s no wrong side with a blanket, so even if I were willing to knot the ends I couldn’t. For now, I’m just hoping washing the blanket when I’m done will convince it to stick to itself a little better.
I would weave in part of the “tail,” then pick up the end and put it over the last spot. (Compare, in sewing, doing a back stitch over itself several times.) That usually holds pretty well.