Long story short, some very nice co-workers chipped in and bought me a stupendous gift certificate to a mouth-watering wool shop last summer. I decided that, as we were a mapping institution, a very fitting thing to make with this present was.... a map blanket. I found, to my surprise, a pattern in the shangri la of all knitting pattern databases: Ravelry, that had already been designed for such a thing. I was well pleased. I printed it out - and stared at it. The map was, um, horribly inaccurate. My cartographic sensitivities could not bear the thought of knitting two Alaskas, or omitting several Pacific Islands, or a Canada with no New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island or Newfoundland... SO, using the stitch math already worked out for me, I made a chart of my own using a world map in the Miller projection as a guide.
I look forward to beginning Europe... look for an update in several months on that front...