New Uses for Large Shawls

Back during the summer of 2011, Andrea Jurgrau of BadCat Designs had a summer knit along called Back to the Garden.

Before the knit along officially started I had already knit one version, one of the best parts of being a test knitter is you get to see things first!

It is a beautiful, creamy yellow, semi-circle shawl and I have worn it a lot.  But, when the knit along started I fell down the path of "what if" and "why not" and cast it on again, with the group, but this time as a full circle in the fully inappropriate yarn choice of a ColourMart 2/15 Cashmere/Merino blend and used extra large (for me!) US size 7 needles.






Needless to say the shawl rapidly turned into a bedspread for a King Sized Bed, when unfortunately I have a Queen size and cats that like to put there claws in things, and sleeping on my bed both when I am in and not in it!  So into the closet she went.

Until today.

I blame TOB for the craziness that follows.

But first, a little more background.

A little while after I dragged the kids across the country and moved into a house in Central Ohio I bought them a fancy swing set.  They were young and it got a lot of use.  Having come from the West Coast, fireflies were new to them, and many an evening was spent with me sitting on a swing while they ran around the garden catching fireflies.  Many an afternoon was spent with them on the swings with me gardening.  But, time marched on and computers and video games started taking more of their attention than playing out in the yard. 

The poor lonely swingset turned into something that was in the way when mowing the lawn, but useful for draping hand knits on to dry.  The chains on the swings rusted, the tarp cover over the playhouse area ripped, then blew away in a windstorm, and even at the magnificent price of "free to a good home" nobody wanted it.

So I decided to repurpose it.  We can hang baskets growing flowers from the monkey bars, or bird feeders, or both. Plant a climbing vine near the ladder and have it become something new.  But the problem of the missing tarp cover remained.

Having heard me say that my ColourMart Spring Contest Entry Shawl was too big and needed some changes before becoming a pattern, TOB suggested that I use it in place of a tarp.

 


 But even at big it wasn't big enough, especially as it is a triangle shawl. But, on a dare, I went ahead and dug in my closet for the even bigger Back to the Garden Full Circle and gave it a whirl.

She's not quite big enough, but, she is also not really well blocked as I didn't have any space big enough to really stretch her out when I last blocked her (ummm...five years ago!)  Now it seems I have a space big enough!

The view when you look up from inside the play tower is nothing short of amazing!

I might just claim it as my knitting loft and leave the shawl there.  :)

How did you spend your Saturday?

~M

Fracturing a Fractal

Before we get to the knitting portion of today's entry, let me take a moment to recognize that for a large part of the American population today was a day of BBQ, beer, cookouts...and generally acknowledging Dads.  For every Father, son of a father, brother of a father...you know the drill here from Mother's Day.... Not one person on the planet could have accomplished anything without the part you played. Happy Father's Day.

Now onto the knitting portion.

Some time ago, Andrea, of Bad Cat Designs, was inspired by her daughter's love of math.  Math plays a huge role in knitting anyway, but for our Knit Along (To Infinity and Beyond) math concepts showed up in new and different ways.

Knitting a Mobius Strip, with lace included, was one, yes it is a math concept!  The Fractal Stole or Blanket was another.

If you will recall I knit a blanket from the Fractal pattern, fingering weight yarn, in a gradient colorway so that each square was just a little different, but as with all Fractals the further you went (in or out) the more of the same you got.  Like a Mandelbrot Set.  But, being me, I wasn't content to leave the pattern alone.  As with The Summer Squares Projects, I was sure that I could use that pattern to make more than a stole, or an adult size blanket.  I could use it in my Baby Blankets Through Time collection, I could use it for gifts, and for part of the knitting it was infinitely more portable than a full size blanket (and in the summer who wouldn't rather knit a smaller square than a bigger blanket that had to sit in your lap, warming you up when you didn't need any warming.)

The first step was the change up the yarn.  New Mom's are not the best at having to hand wash and block things when they need cleaning, and babies are not always sweet smelling little angels who don't spit up, drool or leak onto their blankets.  I wanted machine washable, and for convenience something that could go through the dryer as well.

Paton's Beehive Baby Sport came in colors other than the traditional (for American babies at least) colors of white, blue, pink, pale green and yellow, and I wanted neutral tones that potentially could be used places other than just around a baby!  Needle size also had to be adjusted and while I was messing around with gauge I played with changing up the border and how the squares attached to each other so that I had mini-borders between the squares. (More of that fractal thing.)

At first, the blanket was to go in my stash of blankets, but then I found out that someone I knew was expecting a baby this month,
 
 and nothing makes me finish things as well as a deadline, so I decided it was for him and his wife and actually devoted a little bit of time to it.

To keep things consistent, the lateral braid that I put in place around each square, also edged the border and kept it a little separate from the edging, and finally this past week I finished with grafting the two ends of the edging together.  Just in time, probably the last time I would see him before the baby is born was last Wednesday.....it hit the blocking mats Tuesday evening!

Yep, like I said, nothing inspires like a deadline!

~M