Random blanket/shawls/runners

When I started this project (in 2016!), I fully intended to weave a third panel and sew them together to make a blanket. I'm not sure what happened, but I ran out of steam (and maybe yarn). The first two panels hung in the closet, awaiting their fate. The cover of a recent Little Looms gave me the idea to reframe them as shawls. My daughter, however, thinks they would do better as table runners.

Pattern: Random-striped Blanket, from Inventive Weaving on a Little Loom, by Syne Mitchell
Weave structure: Plain weave
Loom: Ashford 24" rigid heddle
Warp: Yarn leftover from this vest
Weft: More yarn left over from the above mentioned vest, plus some similar yarn in natural or white
EPI/PPI: 7.5/7.5 (theoretically)
Ends: 166
Finished size: 45" x 18" each (not including fringe)


Finishing these two panels involved twisting a LOT of fringe.

I have no idea where my notes are for this project. For the vest, I developed a spreadsheet, which provided some input for these two panels. But otherwise, the details are lost to history. (If I ever come across those notes, maybe I'll update this post.)

This project was one of my first. There are a few floats, but otherwise it turned out surprising good. The yarn fulled nicely, too. I may still stitch the panels together, as they would make a lovely, if narrow, lap robe.

Habitation Throw

What a great way to use up all those bits and bobs of fingering weight yarn! Knit on the diagonal, it includes i-cord edging that is created as you go, and the yarns are joined using the "magic knot" method, so at the end, all you need to do is block. I inadvertently used a larger-than-called-for needle; the result is airy and stretchy, just right to wear as a shawl or to use as a summer lap blanket.

Pattern: Habitation Throw, by Helen Stewart
Yarn: Leftover sock yarn in greens and browns (mostly)
Needle: US9
Modifications: Knit in two halves and grafted together

My goal was to use up as much yarn as possible, so I knit this blanket in two halves, then grafted them together. The result is much larger than I expected; blocking required the use of my queen-sized bed. Believe it or not, I have *more* leftover sock yarn, so I plan to knit another one of these, in (mostly) primary colors, on the correct size needle.

Another Pine Forest baby blanket

I finished a baby blanket just like this one in January, for a soon-to-be-adopted baby boy. Alas, the adoption fell through (which is one reason I eschewed blue). Happily, another adoption was arranged, this time for twin girls. I am thrilled for the new parents (and a little sad for the bio parents). I also felt compelled to knit another blanket.

Pattern: Pine Forest Baby Blanket, by Ingrid Aartun Bøe
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash, in colorway 905 ('Celery')
Needles: US8 (cast on and bound off with US9)
Modifications: None except to slip the first stitch of each row knitwise

I have to admit that I feel a little estranged from knitting these days, as I am focused more on weaving. If there is another baby blanket in my future, I might try weaving it. Or not. Baby blankets are very portable projects, almost as portable as socks.

Oops

I finished the Pine Forest baby blanket. While photographing it, I thought something was wrong with the light in the room. Alas, it was not the light but me. I neglected to check dye lots, so the first third or so of the blanket is a bit lighter than the rest.

Pattern: Pine Forest Baby Blanket, by Ingrid Aartun Bøe
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash, in colorway 905 ('Celery')
Needles: US8
Modifications: None except to slip the first stitch of each row knitwise

While one might expect a major yarn manufacturer to have their process down pat and produce more consistent colors, I should know better than to ignore the dye lots when selecting yarn. I feel compelled to point out this flaw to the recipient, as I don't want her to notice it later and think it was something she did. And once this blanket is wrapped around an adorable baby, who is going to notice?

A WIP

And a helpful knitting cat.

The knitting is a Pine Forest Baby Blanket, for my SO's daughter and hubby who are adopting an infant in February. The cat is Beau, the Feline Destroyer of all Things Nice. At least he did not do any damage here.

A big deal

I *finally* finished the Easy as Pie blanket. This project has been so close to being done for so long that I almost lost hope - each of the final bits took *forever*. It seemed once the circles were squared, things should wrap up (heh) fairly quickly, but first. The squares had to be attached into rows, the rows attached into a blanket, the blanket edged, the edging bound off, and *then* the ends wove in. Fortunately, I had taken care of the ends for the squared circles quite a while ago, or the blanket might still be languishing on the coffee table.

Pattern: Easy as Pie, by Anna Richardson
Yarn: Ella Rae Classic Solids, in 75 Green, 60 Yellow, 70 Tang, 41 Blue, 68 Orchid, 31 Red; Patons North American Classic Wool Worsted in 77110 Navy, and Cascade 220 in 8401 Silver Grey
Needles: US7
Modifications: Used worsted weight yarn instead of DK, and went up a needle size; made seven motifs instead of 2; created 4x4 square instead of 3x3; used suspended bind off around edging

This blanket is for my granddaughter, and while finishing it, I decided no more blankets for her until she leaves for college. Once I laid it out to block, though, I'm thinking this one is big enough to go to college, assuming it lasts that long.

If you wish to make this blanket, here are some helpful hints:
How to do a Left Lifted Increase (LLI)
Grafting tutorial
More info may be found at my Ravelry page.

It will be okay

I've been marching along, working on the Easy as Pie blanket, squaring up the circles. Only four more to go! But I was beginning to worry that the squared circles would not lay flat when done. Then I got the bright idea to block one and see how it turned out.

Whew!

Picking up a UFO after such a long time is problematic. I could not remember if I had already switched to the Irish cottage knitting style when I started (I had but had not yet learned to upsize the needle to make up for tighter stitches). While seeing if the pattern specified how to M1 at the points, I realized the slipped stitches were supposed to be slipped knitwise; I'm not sure I did that, but I am now. I want to do my best, but some days my best is not very good. Since this is a blanket for my 4-year-old g'daughter, and it will remain here at my house, I'm not concerned about perfection. Next time I will do better (I hope).

Now we are six, plus toes up

I'm still making sporadic progress on the Easy as Pie blanket for my granddaughter. Six squares are done, not sure how many there will be total. That will depend on how the yarn holds out.

The problem with the pattern is there are too many reasons to pause, starting with the provisional cast on and ending with squaring the circle. I'll be marching along, and then have to change cadence, so to speak. Plus, I get distracted by socks.

These are toe-up "boot" socks for my son, knit in DK. Since they are heavier, I also try to make them taller, so they can be worn with boots. Since my son has big feet, I decided to do them toe-up, so I can make them as tall as possible before running out of yarn.

For a while, I was concentrating on toe-up socks. Then I took the Yarn Harlot's "Grok the Sock" class and reverted to top-down. Now I'm tired of that, so it is back to toe-up. One of these days I will try EZ's sideways socks. I know - I am one wild and crazy gal.

Third time's a charm?

In the Easy as Pie saga, I first knit the LLI stitches as M1's because I did not understand the stitch description in the pattern. The result was a bit lumpy.

Then I knit the LLI stitches as KFB which reduces the lumpiness in the pie but left holes in the square around the pie.

Then I consulted the Internet about LLI and discovered, no, the pattern designer did not make up that stitch like I thought (because I am such an expert). In fact, here is a good description of LLI and all its cousins.

Now the lumps are gone, the holes are gone, and once again, we can forge ahead, having learned something new.

The only question remaining is, will I reknit the first two squares? Can you see the difference? Or will it just bother me?

Easy as pie, sort of

I'm working on a blanket for my granddaughter, something with bright primary colors that might be finished by the time she goes to college. The pattern is "Easy as Pie" and, once you get past a practice square, it is fairly easy.

It is also rather clever. You knit the radii of the circles, making increases to fill in the space between the radii, then recapture those increases to keep from wandering off into who-knows-what kind of rainbow spiral. It's those increases that have been a puzzlement.

The pattern says to "Use the left needle to pick up left leg of the purl stitch below the last stitch on the right needle. Knit into the back leg of this stitch." Not understanding this at all, I simply did a M1 instead, but the results were a bit bumpy.

On the next square, I made more of an effort to follow the instructions, but I am not seeing the difference between those instructions and simply knitting through the front and back of that last stitch. I don't know if what I am doing is correct, but the result is much smoother.

Whatever. I'm going to stick with the latter method and forge ahead.

The lever knitting is getting better. Stephanie said practicing ten minutes a day for 30 days would be enough to create the muscle memory to transition to this new way to knit, but she did not take into account how difficult it is to teach an old dog new tricks. I have been at it for 100% of my knitting time since Thanksgiving weekend and am finally getting comfortable with it. There for a while, it was such a struggle I didn't even want to pick up the needles. Even now, I can be cruising along, and yet hit a wrenching road bump the next day, the next hour, even the next row. It gets better every day, though. My knitting mojo is back.

Mitered Crosses

I decided to stop obsessing about how best to join the squares of the Mitered Crosses blanket and just whip stitched them together, then added an attached i-cord border.

Pattern: Mitered Crosses blanket - for Japan, by Kay Gardiner
Yarn: Noro Kureyon in 284 and Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted in "Victorian Pink"
Needles: US7
Modifications: whip stitch join

Working on this with record high temperatures (85 in March - seriously?) was a sweaty affair, but now that it has cooled down a bit, I am enjoying this lap blanket. Perfect with a cup of coffee on a cold morning.