One Skein At A Time: February 2007

This is gonna be long so I will try to be as entertaining as I can but I am starting to realize I might not be the best at that. Some of the blogs out there really have me in tears they are so great!

Ok so you have waited for pics! (I don’t even know WHO is out there but I am going to pretend everyone in the free world has been waiting with baited breath to catch a glimpse! HA!) First off let me say that my friend Heather who I knit this for is a VERY close friend. A fellow knitter so I knew I just had to find the RIGHT projects!

I decided on a Popover hat with an adjustable band.....

The hat was so much fun and really pretty simple to do….I could see making more of those at some point. After searching for two days for the colorway of Cotton Tots in the pattern design I e-mailed the designer only to find out it was HAND-DYED Cotton Tots. Grrrrr…..Designer was not pleased that the publisher failed to mention that as well.

Note to Designer: I am really anal in my knitting still. I like to use the exact yarn and colorways I find in a picture so I KNOW what it will look like. If you are asked to submit a design PLEASE can you use a yarn that one can go out and buy? Pretty please? Someday I won’t be so apprehensive but there are others like me. I know because I have asked!

Thanks!
Greatful Knitter

And a Patchwork like blanket made with triangle/kite shaped pieces. After having finished the blanket, the pattern is now ingrained in my head and is now reserved for Grandchildren which is WAY off in the distant future! At least it BETTER be!

I started knitting the Triangle/Kite pieces on January 4^th and I finished seaming on Valentines Day. 6 weeks total. My kids were fed, they had clean clothes and they we re clean.....um...not much else took place!

96 of these:

Each one took me about 30-40 minutes depending on interruptions, what was on TV etc….I was able to do anywhere from 3-7 a day….7 on cold icky Saturdays…..But they were really easy and if you are teaching a beginner a great way to teach decreases!

Fill a shoe box:

I had to change boxes after I started. I don’t know what I was thinking with the toddler size
9 box! This was the biggest box with a lid without buying one that I could scrounge. My family was a real cheering team too. Every night they would say “How many did you do?” “Do just ONE more!” They watched nightly seeing it all come together. They watched with me as the box got more and more full.

Take up and entire Dining Room table - good thing we never use it!:

Now I may be considered anal about this but I

really didn’t want a “pattern” to it and I really didn’t want 2 of the same color touching. As it is I can see a slight pattern but I got clos

e to my goal! I even did an Excel spreadsheet and did auto fill on the boxes with different colors to try and get it right….as it was, once I got it on the table I still needed to do some rearranging.

Knit piece by piece and row by row:

The SEAMING! Goodness I was stressed about this part. I have never seamed anything before. The pattern calls for a crochet edge to seam them. So I called expert knitter Anne and said HELP! She said no problem! However as the dates to finish were looming near we were having a bit of a scheduling issue because lets face it, she’s in St Louis, I’m in Illinois, we both are moms of active kiddos…..both with new pups….all that combined leads to BUSY. So I tell myself, that I really want an invisible seam and all that I could discern was that the crochet seam would not be. I really wanted to do the mattress stitch because I just love how it came together. I told myself “You can do this! You have self taught almost everything you know –except socks….TRY it what’s the worst that could happen?” So I went to knittinghelp.com and I have to say that is the BEST site to learn just about anything you need to know regarding technique. Watch ed the streaming video a few times and voila! I did a happy little dance!

It took me about a week to do all the seeming and then you have a ……

Finished blanket!:

I just really love the “patchwork” effect of this blanket. Reminds me of the quilts our grandmothers and their mothers used to make from play dresses and kitchen drapes….this

would be a PERFECT blanket to make much bigger for a daughter getting married I think, using leftover yarns from your projects as long as they are about the same weight of course. When you finish a project, make a triangle or two …stick in a safe place….

This blanket measured about 40x 60 when it was done…I think. Its hard to remember.