Happy Leap Day!
As I said last week, I’m working on two blankets for two weddings this summer. This one is for my eldest brother Krystopf and Atlas, his wife-to-be. Depending on how you look at it, it’s going to be both easier and more of a challenge than the one I’m making for Doodle. Easier, because it just involves knitting, and more of a challenge because I really hate/suck at knitting.
But there you go.
I bought these beautiful hand-dyed, Canadian-made wools at A Good Yarn downtown. I had jewel tones in mind for this blanket (Atlas likes purple and blue), and Tanis Fiber Arts had exactly what I was looking for. They’re just gorgeous, and totally worth the price.
Now, those are skeins, which means that I had to wind them all into balls before I could start knitting. There is an art to winding wool by hand, but I haven’t yet perfected it. Mostly I swear a lot as I constantly drop my misshapen ball-in-progress and it goes skittering off across the floor. Anyway, these ones aren’t bad.
When you’re knitting with balls of wool, it helps to put the ball in a bowl while you knit. This keeps it in one place, and not rolling all over the place and getting tangled. You can even get special bowls designed for knitting, but I haven’t yet reached the apex of ability that means I deserve such a thing.
I know my limitations when it comes to knitting, so I’m keeping this as simple as possible, and hoping that the simplicity ends up equalling elegance when I’m through. So I’ve got four colours, and I’m just doing two columns of alternating colours. This one is green and turquoise, and the other one will be purple and navy. Then I will stitch the columns together to form the blanket. (FYI, those panels are each 30 stitches long and about 36 rows tall.)
And I will offset my knit sides and purled sides so that it forms a patchwork when I’m done.
I will of course need to figure out something to do around the edges. I’m open to easy suggestions (please no i-cord or anything like that).
But that’s what I got so far!
Ali Does It Herself 
Ribbing is always a classic way of finishing something off — and it stays nice and flat.
LikeLike
That is an idea. I mean the whole thing will be essentially ribbed, when I sew it together. Do you mean to knit a border piece that is ribbed?
LikeLike
Yeah, pretty much. What a lot of the patterns I’ve done have you do is either start and end with a ribbed section (so it would be like, 12 rows of ribbing, then your full-length pattern, then end with 12 rows of ribbing), then pick up along the remaining sides and rib those. Since you’ve already started your blanket, you would have to pick up on the cast-on section, but you could still end with a ribbed section and save yourself the pick ups on the cast-off side.
Hopefully this makes sense!
LikeLike
Makes perfect sense, though it’s a bit beyond my ken as a knitter. Picking up stitches is not something I’m good at!
LikeLike
Those are really great colours. Makes me want to pick up knitting needles again.
LikeLike
gorgeous yarns. and i find the same is true…i’ve never been disappointed by spending a little extra for yarn. the quality really makes a difference. also, i haven’t quiet reached my apex of knitting ability either, but it sure was nice to get that bowl as a gift!
happy knitting.
LikeLike
If u know how to crochet, u can crochet a border! Or if u can sew, maybe a bias tape edge? Cant wait to see the outcome!!
LikeLike
Hmm, also a good idea. Thanks!
LikeLike
Great photos, I absoulety love the colors! I recently found your blog, and I love your writing style. I recently started my own blog, and am looking for my own voice. What you’ve created here is the perfect example of the kind of blog I aspire to: simple, honest, excellent content, and has a unique personality! Big fan. 🙂
LikeLike
Aw, thanks Rachel, I really appreciate that! I’m going to add you to my blogroll.
LikeLike