Ta-da!

Another finished object that has been almost-finished for a couple of months: my big crocheted blanket. A couple of evenings ago, I added a few more double-crochet rows and then crocheted a border around the whole thing (2 rows of single crochet). All done!


I haven't measured it, but having Bill hold it up gives a sense of scale. (It looks almost square in the photo, but that's just because it's heavy; it's quite definitely rectangular.) It's not big enough for the queen-size bed, but it's plenty big to keep two people warm on the couch, which had been my intent.

I won't list every (worsted weight) yarn I used, but there are 25 different colours and 125 rows of double crochet. Most were leftovers -- from this sweater, this sweater, and this scarf, for example, plus my ripped-out turtleneck shrug. Others were leftovers, but not mine; Nicole and Jenny each sent a selection of wool in balls of various sizes for this project. I also bought yarn for this blanket, including a a ball of Marra and a ball of Warani for their alpaca content (next fantasy project: Warani bodysuit), and a skein of O-Wool just to see how it felt (good, a little grabby). There was no formula for colour use -- I just made sure that each new colour looked good next to the previous row. The border is a very dark green Galway Heather, which I'd actually bought thinking it was dark gray.


The original inspiration was Bella Dia's Vintage Vertical Stripe Crocheted Blanket pattern. I had never crocheted anything in my life, but her instructions were clear and easy to follow. (She chained 250 for her foundation row; I chained 175.) I really enjoyed making this. Now I'll put it away until the fall, when I'll be very happy to snuggle under it.

Mini-ripple Mooky blanket

Mooky assured me that he didn't need to have the prettiest blanket, as long as it was soft and woolly and big enough for him to sprawl out on comfortably. I was dipping into the yarn supply for my own blanket, and he encouraged me to choose yarns for his mini-blanket that I either have a lot of to use up or that I'm the least crazy about. He's selfless that way.


The big question now is, will Mooky's new mini-blanket help to diminish his obsession with my blanket-in-progress? We can only hope.

Bonus links:
- the pattern I used: Easy Ripple Afghan
- the No-End-In-Sight Ripple-Along blog (I'm not a member; I just visit for the pretty pictures)

Round up

1. Spring will begin at eight o'clock tonight (Eastern time), they say. Even though it's completely white outside, and cold, it does feel like winter is winding down. Hallelujah!

2. I'm sad that CBC Radio 3's Saturday night show is over. When Grant Lawrence signed off, I may have said "Nooooooo!" to my radio. (You may recall last spring's incident of winning the hoodie.)

3. I've started to read The Friday Night Knitting Club, but I'm also getting to that point in the semester when novel-reading time vanishes, replaced by paper-writing time. I know this not only because of my elevated stress level, but because at the end of yesterday's class no one even suggested going to the pub. We all just filed out of the room, glassy-eyed, mumbling about going home to work on our papers.

4. Bill and I went to see Zodiac on the weekend. I liked it, but I thought it was needlessly long. Amazing (and huge) cast. I also watched The Education of Shelby Knox (on DVD), which was excellent.

5. Oh, my heavens, have you seen Cookie A's new site and its stunning sock designs? The German Stocking? Now that's some sock knitting. I'd better not start any complex socks until the end of the school term, though.

6. I can't remember who blogged about Google Notebook, but thanks! Much better than just bookmarking web pages.

7. My crocheted blanket is big now, so I only work on it when I'm on the couch. What to do when I'm sitting at my desk, working, and need a little reward? Well, start a tiny crocheted blanket for Mooky, of course! It's actually geared more towards keeping my reading chair cat-hair-free than giving Mooky a blanket of his own, although I do think he'll like sleeping on it. But he loves to sleep on my red corduroy chair (at least, he looks pretty happy about it). Instead of continuing to cover the chair cushion in various photocopied journal articles and other pieces of paper that are within reach, I'm crocheting a ripple "blanket" the size of the seat. And I've been doing lots of, um, rewarding work, so it's almost done. (Next post: crocheted seat-cover cat blanket! Sexy, sexy, sexy.)

Blanket progress report: Hic!

Did my assistant have a few cocktails before this photo shoot? Hmmm, Mooky? No drinking on the set! Pull yourself together!


The blanket continues to grow, although I spent last night's TV time weaving in all the ends along one side instead of adding more rows. I'll end up crocheting a border around the whole thing at the very end, I think, just to neaten things up. Oh, Mooky just left -- I think he's going to sleep it off and try to come back into focus -- so let's have another look, shall we?


As always, the colours look richer in person. I have no idea how big this thing is going to get. I've got lots of yarn left, in a box next to the couch that-- Hey! Mooky?


Time to lay off the sauce, little buddy. You're only hurting yourself.

Blanket progress report: Halfway?

It's getting harder to photograph my blanket; as you can see, it's now wider than a chair. Since this is a vertical-stripe blanket, you're looking at the width here. I think I'm about halfway. I don't really have a plan, though, so I'll probably just keep going until I run out of yarn. Will it be a throw for the couch or a cover for the queen-sized bed? We'll see!

It's also hard to photograph because the colours just don't show up correctly. They look washed out in the photo. Trust me, the colours are richer.

And here's a completely unrelated link, for my friend Jeanie: Technorati-tagged images of cupcakes. Hi, Jeanie!

Ripped, redone, and relieved

A row had been bugging me: a bright pink row of Peace Fleece that was the eleventh row in my blanket. The Peace Fleece was just much thicker and stiffer and rougher than any of the other yarns. I told myself it would soften in the wash, and it was just one row out of hundreds, and I kept going. Then last night, when I finished my work, I gleefully pulled out my box of new blanket yarn and arranged the blanket in my lap, ready to go. Bill looked over (we were on the couch watching TV) and said, "What's going on there? Look -- this part is all bunchy, and it doesn't look as nice as the rest." And he was pointing at the Peace Fleece. Arrgh! I knew it had to go. So I ripped back nine rows, pulled out the pink PF, felt relieved, and then started to work on my blanket again.

I started using the new colours right away, and it's so interesting to me to see how it's changed, and how different certain colours look next to other ones. Choosing colours is a big part of this project, and a challenge -- of course I could go out and buy yarn in my chosen palette, but it's much more satisfying (says me) to work with what I've got. Anyway, when I finally went to bed last night, I was two rows past where the blanket had been before the big rip. But just think of how much I can get done tonight!

The blanket lives!

I've had to ignore the urge to crochet for almost a week, since a certain pair of podcasters (Nicole and Jenny -- "Yay!") had let me know that they'd each be sending some of their own leftovers my way. Since I want some overall colour unity in my finished blanket, I had to set aside enough of my own leftovers so I could use those colours throughout. And I didn't want to go too far before beginning to incorporate some of the yarns that were headed my way. But now I can resume, because this box arrived this morning!


Is there anything lovelier than a box filled with yarn (that has your name on it and is delivered right to your door)? I'm so excited! Not only because I can work on my blanket again, but because this is a whole new set of colours (compare the pink/gold/orange/purple to my own dark greens, blues, darker pinks, and beiges) and a bunch of yarns that are completely new to me. I've never used Lamb's Pride before! I know it's very common south of the border, but I've never even seen it in Canada. And -- but wait, there's more! -- I'm relieving Nicole of some yarn that she no longer wanted, so it's a win-win situation. Hooray! Thanks again, Nicole. I'll be a happy hooker tonight!

The obsession continues

So far I've used 9 different kinds of yarn, in 13 different colours. All have been leftovers, until last night. I bought a skein of O-Wool Classic because I figured this blanket gives me the chance to try new yarns and see if I like them. (The O-Wool is just slightly rough -- not rough, exactly, but kind of sticky -- but it's gorgeous. It's the second row from the top in the photo above.) I think this blanket needs some yellow or orange soon...

Added: Have you seen the knit vs. crochet mockumentary Wooly Bullies (found via Yarn-a-go-go)? Oh. My. God. It is so funny. (On crocheters: "It's just ridiculous, the things these people try to pull off as legitimate.") Go watch it now if you haven't already.

Craft much?

In their comments on my last post, Chris and LoriZ rightly called me out as a big procrastinator. It's pretty obvious, I know: knitting the Arisaig sleeve, learning to crochet so I can start a blanket -- and I haven't even showed you Bill's new vest, which he's been wearing for almost a week already. And this was before I received a quilt kit in the mail today:


Even though I do have a small stash of fabric, I decided to dive into quilting with a kit. It's small -- just 40 inches square when finished. It will be my learning quilt, and I'm so excited to get started. The fabrics (more than 30 different prints!) are fabulous. I think I'm going to take the rest of today off and start arranging these little squares on my floor, and maybe I can start sewing this evening!

(In the photo, you can see my reworked crochet. I started again with a looser foundation row -- thank you, commenters Alison and Steph -- and decided it really needed a strip of pink before I went much farther. Then, in the background, is a novel [!] I have to read for school: What We All Long For by Dionne Brand. This is the first time since I took an English class at Concordia in 1993 that I've had to read a novel for school -- and that time, it was Ulysses, for pete's sake.)

It's probably for the best that my copy of the latest Interweave Knits hasn't appeared in my mailbox yet, don't you think? I'd probably just have to drop out of school.

Blanket progress report: "Interesting"

I added a few rows to my latest obsession, the crocheted blanket, using leftovers from my Must Have Cardigan, my So-Called Scarf, Bill's Leafs socks, and my Backyard Leaves scarf. Bill looked at it and said, after a significant pause, "You have an interesting way of putting colours together sometimes." I said, "Thank you."

(Yes, I do realize the colours are a little obnoxious, but these are only the first few inches of a whole blanket, so I figure there's lots of space for things to come together. They may actually be rearranged just a little, as I'm finding that my cast-on row -- or whatever that's called in crochet -- is tighter than subsequent rows, and I'd rather rip back and start again at this point than to crochet for miles and end up with one tight and puckery edge.)

* * *
What a wintry day it is! We have a foot or so of fresh, powdery snow here -- not much compared to some places. I'll show you my frosty front window:


OK, back to work. I'm revising a paper and trying desperately to stop thinking about crocheting! Who am I?

It's a sweeve! Or a slawtch?

This is my swatch for the lace wrap-around cardigan Arisaig. Funny how it turned out in the shape of a sleeve, isn't it? I'm still deciding whether I want to commit to this project. I'm pretty sure I will; after all, although it sounds like a lot of work to knit a sweater on 3.0mm needles (and smaller for the ribbing!), it's reasonably fast doing it with all the yarnovers of the lace pattern. Still, I suspect that I'm mostly just seduced by the lovely and dramatic photos of designer Ysolda modelling her version on some windswept Scottish beach.

I bought yarn off of eB@y specifically for this -- inexpensive wool made by Jojoland. (What? You've never heard of Jojoland? Where have you been?) (Quebec residents: It has nothing to do with that JoJo.) I bought ten of these navy balls of wool. It feels very similar to Kroy sock yarn, or other slightly scratchy wool/nylon sock yarns, even though it is 100% wool. The sweeve/slawtch you see above has not been properly blocked, just roughly pinned out, so I don't know how much the fabric will soften after a wash.


When you're considering a new project, do you google around to see whether others have knit it already? (And do you know about Google Blog Search, which makes that task a lot easier?) There are a few finished Arisaigs out there, and they look great, which makes me think I should follow through. For example, this modified version is really pretty (although one of the things I really love about the original design is the deep ribbing). I think I would close mine with buttons, like this version, instead of knitting the long tie. And I'd definitely sew the shoulders together, then attach the flat sleeves, and then sew up the sides and sleeves -- as alerted by the notes accompanying this version.

Anyway, you'll never guess what I did last night after finishing that sweeve/slawtch! Seriously, you won't. I'll give you a hint:


It's true! I have never had any desire to crochet, and the only reason I own a crochet hook and can do a chain stitch is for provisional cast-ons for knitting. For a month or so I've been thinking about making a small blanket for myself, as a way of using up some worsted-weight leftovers, but none of the knitted options appealed to me. And then I saw this: the Vintage Vertical Stripe Crocheted Blanket Pattern at Bella Dia. So last night I grabbed the leftovers from my EZ sweater, followed her links to learn how to do a double crochet stitch, and I was off! And look what I did!


This strip is about five feet long. In a few years, I'll have a blanket! It was fun to learn to do something new, but it did hurt my hand a little bit. I can feel a little obsession taking hold, though -- I need to read today, but my mind keeps wandering off and thinking about my crocheted blanket. We'll see if this new enthusiasm lasts long enough that I actually finish a blanket. I suppose if it doesn't, I'll come back and try to convince you that it's really cool to have a crocheted belt.

Winter weather warnings all over the place today. Be careful out there. And happy Valentine's Day to you! (Mooky thanks you for your cat-love and admiration!) xo