"The time has come, " the knitter said

It is official, if you still have a blanket, a hoodie sweater and two pairs of socks to get knitted up and off your needles by Christmas, go ahead and panic because time, my friend, is certainly marching on and the big day is less than a week away!

One more gift knit did make it off my needles this week.  I had to join several knit picks cables together to get a circular needle long enough to go all the way around but they make these nifty joiner things now so although tedious to keep cinching my knitting around the giant cable I had created I was able to work the entire border and edging in one piece!

To give you a quick reminder, way back in the spring I started knitting squares for a blanket for TDQ.  I used patterns from one of Bad Cat Designs knit alongs, Summer Squares and a bag of unknown yarn that I picked up for a song at a thrift store.  I used just about all of that yarn, and noticed once I was done that the darker color did seem to be in two different shades, but TDQ doesn't mind at all!

Rather than follow the rules (and we all know that women who follow the rules never make history!) I mashed up several of the different projects that were offered during that Knit Along and came up with "Cha Cha Cha Cha Changes"

This past week I cast her off and got my first good look since putting all those stitches on my giant circular needle.

What do you think?

She is 108 inches by 64 inches, contains 15 squares, many, many balls of yarn, the border from Blue Quartet and the edging from Summer Squares Blanket modified to work in the round.  With those dimensions I didn't have enough blocking wires to block the edges straight, and rather than dig for cotton to run through the edges for blocking I just put in some gentle waves for now.  Time for a proper straight edge blocking AFTER December 25th!

Oh, and Amanda, I am so sorry but I got carried away when I was weaving in ends and accidentally wove in the three you were going to do.  I will make sure to save you some out of my next "million and three ends to weave in" project.  Speaking of projects, I had better go work on some, I am the knitter who still has one blanket, one hoodie and two pair of socks to get on and off the needles in a week!

~M

How many stitches to make a blanket?

A quick check of my "on the needles" projects revealed an interesting fact to me, and certainly explained why I have not had any finished objects to share!

I seem to have a "thing" for blankets at the moment!

There is the baby blanket through time, which only had four rows worked on it this week so I didn't take a new photo, you remember it though, right?


There is TDQ's blanket that is getting closer to completion but each round is taking me forever! That little bit of border there took hours, most of them spent shuffling stitches around the extra long circular needle I am using. I got myself a set of these a while back and joined two of the longest cables I had to make a giant circular! The plan is to keep going with that color until I use an entire ball to knit 4 rounds, then switch to the lighter for 6 rounds of garter to finish her off.

The Other Brother's blanket should be moving along faster than it is, size 15 needles and only a 115 stitches wide you would think it would have just flown by. Guess it comes of having small hands but I am finding that although the pattern is still holding my interest the logs I am knitting with are not!
That is just about the half way done point, judging from both the yarn I have left and the pattern instructions. It is plenty wide, the only question is will it be long enough to suit him? Of course DS1(The Brother) wants one in red so I will have to start scoping out yarn soon.

Back to the Garden Chart 3 was released early this week, but I haven't started knitting it yet. Another side project made an appearance as well, socks in a variation of one of the stitch patterns from the shawl.

Yesterday was weeding day in my garden, today was cutting back things that had decided to take just a little too much advantage of my quick to tire body this summer.

This little guy kept an eye on me, just to make sure I didn't cut things too far!

He's awfully cute, and much less naggy than my usual "mom is using tools so we better keep an eye on her!" spotter.

Til next time....to quote Bad Cat Designs...Knit On!

~M

Can you even see that knitting has been added?

You will not believe how long it took to add just that much of the blanket! The rounds on this are a lot longer than they look.

Maybe it will be done, one day, for now I can only take working on it a little at a time..nothing like a heavy blanket on your lap when it is hot out.

~M

Cha Cha Cha Cha Changes

Some of you will remember The Summer Mash when I took elements from several of the Summer Squares Projects and mashed them up together to create a lap blanket, that come to think of it promptly went home with someone else! Can't keep a blanket around here to save my life!

Well, it looks like I have done it again.

But I needed a different name, can't have two mash ups!

So instead we have Cha Cha Cha Cha Changes....

And I am far from finished.

Only me, I am the only one who would join all 15 squares using garter stitch rows between them and a quick three needle bind off. Only me would then pick up all 850 plus stitches around the outside edge and decide that what this blanket needs is a border or two and then edging.

And certainly, only I would be dumb enough to do all that when it is 90 degrees Fahrenheit outside! I have 13 balls of yarn left, I hope it is enough!

~M

In which the knitter remembers

I hope you brought a snack, this is the longest post I have written in a while!

Way back when, when Summer Squares was the current knit along for Bad Cat Designs, this knitter messed up!

I know, shocking idea that something using needles and thread would lead to errors (hah!) but this knitter had Dark Star failure! In that case it was a failure to count rows properly and instead of knitting the even number required to bring her back to the right side of the work for patterning, she accidentally knit an odd number of rows and had one section facing the wrong way.

If I recall several people couldn't tell the mistake from the picture, but I could see it.

But anyway....

I finished two more squares on the latest incarnation of the Summer Squares project.

Harp (14) and Leaf (15) :

And then measured them roughly against the bed that they will go on and decided that maybe it was time to join the squares together and figure out which edging I wanted to use!


Hmmmmmm

Maybe not the brightest of ideas!
Maybe you can tell if you click to "embiggen" (side note, I love that word and steal it from the Yarn Harlot whenever I get the opportunity!)

Yep, one lonely square upside down.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Now I am back to having 15 squares sitting on my desk, crying to be a bedspread while I ignore them.

Knowing that an entire blanket was going to be too hot to work on when the temperatures start to creep steadily upward I cast on another blanket today.

Yes, another one.

Baby blanket this time so it should be cooler to work on, and I might have decided to work another Summer Squares project for it. Golden Eye, now know as the Wilson Welcome Wrap (to be known for the rest of its in progress time as the WWW) is going to be two tone and is off to a good start. I would show you pics but I can't seem to hold the camera steady enough right now, maybe tomorrow right after work I will get some for you.

Which brings me to another idea, another stolen idea actually, I seem to be borrowing things from a lot of people lately!

Someone I know recently had a baby and for this baby, her first, there was a blanket that had been knit by I believe it was a great-grandmother before she died and stored safely away until the right moment. I liked that idea so much that even though I am not a grandmother, or a great grandmother, that I think that once I am finished the WWW I will start a collection of my own. Plenty of room in a safe deposit box at the bank to store them if I knit a lot and one day, when the time is right and I am no longer around maybe a great-grandbaby will get a handed down through time hug from me.

~M

Things to do while being still

A friend of mine and I have been talking about this off and on for a while now, the joy that can be found in just being still.

Staying put for a while and letting the things that are meant to be unfold around you.

And while that doesn't work to well for me at home, three children, too many cats, a dog, a yard, laundry, cooking, cleaning all clamor for their attention, at work we decided it was easier to do. More importantly what we are meant to be doing right now.

Knitters are very good at waiting, waiting in waiting rooms, emergency rooms, sometimes in line at the bank (although I haven't actually seen that in person I hear that the Yarn Harlot does it!) And while I have been still and waiting some things have jumped on and off my needles....

First up is the Mystery Shawlette that Wendy Knits is hosting.








That was the third cast on......the first time through for the set up I worked the charts all the way across and neglected to put in the center!

The second time I miscounted my repeats and had 6 on one side and 8 on the other, so a very asymmetrical shawl.

The third time, just like Goldilocks and the porridge it was just right.


I changed things up just a little, and all of my double decreases are centered.
Just in case you are wondering, one of my favorite yarns begged to be this project. That is Land O Lace, Steffi in Andover.

There will be more on that later!

I am still working my way through squares for TDQ's blanket. Here are 11,12 and 13.





I think that when I have 15 I will try joining them in three rows of 5 squares and see where we are for sizing. Terribly bad planning on my part as the summer weather has finally made an appearance, I will have an entire blanket stretched over my lap in 80 degree weather!

Clue #2 was posted for the Mystery Shawlette today, another 12 rows and I have already completed them. The nice thing about a bottom up shawl that starts with you casting on many, many, many, stitches is that the rows get shorter as you go!


Even unblocked she is awfully pretty!

And now she is in a ziploc bag until Thursday when Clue 3 comes out!

The down side to being still? The weeds have overtaken the garden, but I can still enjoy some of the flowers!
Miss Kim smells wonderful!

~M

Random Picture Sunday

A bit at a time

In keeping with the "knit little bits of things" theory, I am working on squares right now. So far I have six complete, number 7 is on the needles right now!

I can't tell you anything about the yarn, other than it is cabled and I scored a huge bag of it...hopefully enough to turn the little bits of things into a blanket/throw for TDQ's bed.


The observant among you will recognize the pattern. It is Summer Squares from BadCat Designs, which was our summer knit along in 2009.
I am planning on having all the squares be the same color with a lighter but complimentary joining thread and edging.


Right now I don't even know how many squares I will need, or will be able to get out of the yarn that I have!

Once I have a few more done I will block them and measure to see!


Just a few months ago I would have been much further along in this project with a week of knitting in, but I am pleased that so far I am sticking with it!

Who knows, I might even get it together enough to switch back to the sweaters in the next day or so.

~M