Day 2: blanket

I tried to prepare myself well for December and for the days leading up to the celebration… but when I looked at the date in the morning, 2^nd of December, I felt choked for a bit. November seems such a long month, it drags along and never seems to end, and once December begins to roll, it seems to fly by. I know this is an old habit, I have no reason to feel hurried or … choked at all, but habits don’t seem to die.

I put out most of the fairy lights in the evening and wake them up in the morning. I guess there is no need to do so, but I like to walk around and put out the lights, as if to calm down for the night and then again, in the morning light them up again. Even though there are these small electric lights, a few real candles need to be lit too. I spiced my morning coffee with cinnamon and sugar today, but… I guess, I need my early morning cup, strong and honest, no extra spices there. Tomorrow I will spice up the afternoon cup… maybe.

I wonder if you follow Kathryn of the Crafternoon Treats. She dyes and sells yarn on Etsy and has a vlog on YouTube. She mostly crochets but has been knitting more lately.

Many, many crocheters are making blankets, beautiful blankets and so varied. I was inspired to make one last winter… two, if I count the one, I made for Piisku, and never took pictures of them. Maybe I need to brush all the dog hair from them and then take pictures. My mission for the blankets was to get the sock yarn stash cleaned. Both used a lot, but there is still so much left that I need to make a new one.

I have tried many methods… hexagons, granny squares, great and small, beautiful overlay motifs, circles, … and I make one or two blocks, look at all the ends that need to be woven in plus wonder what kind of method would be best for attaching the pieces together… should I sew them with whip stitch or crochet them together… do I like the thick seam or not… and then I toss away the small beginnings and think that crocheted blankets are not for me. 

I would like to make one in one big piece, without having to figure out the seaming method. Lucy of Attic24 makes her blankets in one big piece mostly, but her colors are so beautiful, I would not like to make her lovely patterns with my leftover yarns, as my blankets would be nothing like Lucy’s radiant and wonderful blankets.

Kathryn started to crochet a blanket for herself using various sock yarn hand dyed minis. Her blanket will be happy and full of color, and she is using the same method as in log cabin quilts. You start with a square and then add logs around it, I am sure you know what I mean. I immediately fell in love with the idea, no need to be sewing small blocks together, I would use one color for one log, so there would not be that many ends to weave in.

I have quite a big box of thin (fingering weight) Pirkka all wool yarn in various colors. It is worsted spun, has beautiful color chart but I find it hard to knit with.

I am not sure why I feel that way, it is as if the yarn is little bit stiff, like it doesn’t mold very well into soft, rounded knit stitches… I have knit mittens with it, and used it double for felting projects. It felts beautifully. But, for a long time I have searched for a good project for it, one where I could use all the various colors I have.

This is the small beginning of my blanket to be. I am using a very small hook, 2,5mm and maybe I should have used 3,0mm. I first thought that I would make a log cabin cushion cover and thus picked the small hook but realized how much yarn I have and changed my goal, and I will try to make this into a blanket.

I took out all the colors I have and tried to sort them out and make a plan for the blanket, but then decided not to. I will just follow my intuition, pick whatever color feels right, and see what comes out of it. I want to use as much of the yarn I have and was afraid that if I make a plan, I will run out of certain colors and then I WOULD NEED TO BUY MORE… and that would be so much against my original plan.

I wonder if this works out… and how many logs I will get done. If I run out of steam, I could always return to my original plan and make the cushion cover instead.

Wool with you,

Lene

PS. I try to write these posts fairly quickly, so I am sure they are full of mistakes, please ignore them the best you can.