Friday, January 30, 2015

Distractions - Blanket Knitting


The double knit mittens I'm making have my fingers cramping (my needles are very pointy too leaving my finger tip sore from pushing the stitches off - angora yarn can be "sticky") so I started looking about for a distraction.  Well, knitting distraction that is, as there is plenty of housework needing to be done I'm just not of a mind to do it.  But, being productive is important to me, which had me turning to my WIPs hoping for something simple and a bit mindless.  This blanket fit the bill even though it's technically not a WIP, as it was finished and has been in use for some months, but I decided a few weeks back that it was too small at only 45 inches square (it doesn't really wrap around the body enough when cuddling on the couch).  

I began searching for some yarn on Ravelry looking through people's stashes of Lorna's Laces Shepard Worsted and Green Line Worsted, as those were the yarns I used previously, to see what was available in the sell or trade category.  This is a good way to find great yarn at discounted prices.  Although, really this blanket is not an economical project even having purchased all the yarn in this manner.  The afghan was knit using 8 1/2 - 225 yard skeins and now I'm looking to add 6 more - yikes!  Tallying up the cost officially is something I'm not ready to face up to, but in for a penny in for a pound and I might as well end up with a blanket in a size I'll regularly use.  See, I never really thought this project through and I think that's the problem.  It began with a lone skein of worsted weight yarn along with a bad case of "start-itis" (you know when you want to start a casting on a million knitting projects at once?  Oh yeah, it's a disease all right which comes and goes like the common cold, but leaves a devastating wake of partially knit projects behind) and thought "Hmm an afghan knit with only ten stitches - that sounds like fun."

Back to searching for those 6 more skeins of yarn.  I found 2 skeins of a Navy Blue which I loved, and I thought would make at least one ring around but I still needed even more yarn to get the 60 inches square blanket I desired.  As luck would have it I found 4 skeins of the exact same yarn, same colorway (Lorna's Laces Shepard Worsted in Edgewater) that I began with in the blanket's center.  Yay!  It will now look like I planned the colors out instead of buying random yarn as I went along.  The messages were sent, money changed hands and in a manner of days 6 skeins of yarn arrived in the mail  - easy peasey!

The navy ring was completed yesterday and I'm hoping by next week I'll finish the last 2 multicolored rings.  Then the blanket will be complete and the distraction will have passed and maybe, just maybe I'll get back to those mittens. 

Joining in with Linda for Creative Friday and Andrea for Fibre Arts Friday.

12 comments:

  1. I contacted a dyer to make me a batch of yarn to do a capelet in. Never even once stopped to think about the amount of yarn we are talking about!!! Oh well, good think I get a discount through her for being a good customer!

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    1. Wow! Yeah, I think if knitter's really thought hard about how much we spend on yarn we'd be more discerning, but then again knitting is so fun probably not ;)

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  2. This is one of my favorite blanket patterns. A great way to use up remnants. Yours looks warm and snugly. Thank you for sharing.

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    1. Thanks! Yes, it's a snugly project having it warm my legs and lap while I knit away at the edges.

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  3. That looks like a perfect project during these cold days.

    Did you knit during the Super Bowl yesterday? Today on Facebook a friend of mine was proudly displaying a photo of a hat that she made during the game. :)

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    1. Yes, it is perfect during these colder days and yes I did knit on Sunday. It was probably during the super bowl time frame, but we didn't watch it.

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  4. That blanket is beautiful! I also LOVE that yarn.

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    1. Thanks Amanda! Yes, I fell hard for that yarn and am so pleased to have the edge look like the center.

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