FO: Sampler Baby Blanket

Yarn: Plymouth Encore in grey, dark grey, brown, and cream
Needles: US 9 (which, in retrospect, was too big)
Patterns Used (four squares, one of each color for each pattern):

• Plain stockinette squares
• Using 100 Afghan Squares to Knit by Debbie Abrahams, I knit the "Sea Wall" basket weave and "Twine" cables patterns
• "Embossed Twining Vine Leaf" from Barbara Walker

I've already posted about this blanket a couple of times, so I don't have much more to say. This was the very first project I ever started, and after a few months I was more than ready to put this in a basket and never look back. I am very grateful to the Webs podcast - while doing the Babette crochet-along, they suggested doing a baby blanket if a full afgan was too much - and Project Spectrum Air, which convinced me to pull it out again. I'm not sure who will be the lucky baby - they may not yet be conceived - but I think it will make someone else very happy someday.

I am still working on baby blanket #2 - that one will be made of Celtic-style cabled squares.

Recent FOs

My knitting has been a bit scattered since I finished the Icy Shetland Triangle in June. (I did block the three shawls, but haven't had photo sessions with them yet).

I like having knitting projects that are portable, because I knit away from home a lot - in the car (when I'm the passenger, of course), when I'm hanging with friends, and during several Wednesday meetings at work. I also want projects that are easy to memorize, because a lot of the time, I have to concentrate on something besides my knitting.

With Project Spectrum Air happening over the months of June & July, I decided to pull out the sampler blanket project that I put in the bottom of my stash bins over a year ago. Because this is the first project I ever knit, I am not into knitting it any more, so I decided to take the 25 squares I had already knit, finish off seven more, and make two baby blankets with 16 squares each. The grey & cream (& brown) colors were a perfect match for PS Air, and working on squares would be a portable little project good for summertime knitting. Except - each square requires closely following a pattern, so it turned out to be less convenient than I thought. I am happy to say I just finished sewing up one blanket, and have four more squares to knit for blanket #2.

So I've done a slew of quick little, portable projects. Many of which are actually good for Project Spectrum Water, which just started August 1. I finished the Falling Leaves Shawl:



And knit a Foliage Hat out of the same yarn (Berrocco Ultra Alpaca in Oceanic Mix) to match:



I found that the Ultra Alpaca was not as suited to the pattern as the Malagbrigo. It was way too long. After finishing the hat, I had to pick out the cast off, rip back the ribbing and a lace repeat, and then reknit the ribbing.

I knit a Scrunchable Scarf and a pair of mittens (cobbled together my own design) out of Malabrigo Chunky in the Vaa colorway to match the Foliage Hat I made for myself:



And a quick little Pro Bono hat in naturally dyed handspun from Tactile Fiber Arts:



I also was out of town for almost two weeks. I took along two one-skein lace scarf projects but was not engaged by either of them. And frankly, Hawaii is not conducive to knitting - I was either swimming, taking pictures, or reading (a lovely vacation indeed). I have already frogged the one I was trying to design and I suspect the other one will follow. Also, I frogged Birch - I knew I couldn't make it into what I wanted it to be. I do love the Morehouse Merino Lace yarn with the fern leaf lace pattern, so expect they will be paired again at some point.

So, the only WIP I have going right now is the baby blanket #2. I need a portable, easy to memorize project. Which means, ladies and gentlemen, that it is time to cast on for the Great Feather & Fan Shawl Project of 2008.

Four More Squares

Remember this project?



After having put aside the sampler blanket for several months, I finally pulled it out again. I couldn't quite make myself knit the same square four times in the four different colors of yarn, but I did enjoy challenging myself with new cable patterns:


Cable pattern from St. Brigid sweater in Alice Starmore's Aran Knitting.


Bjars Hitches Cables pattern from Elsebeth Lavold's Viking Patterns for Knitting.


"Interlaced Twisted Rings" and "Twisted Linked Rings" cable patterns from Elsebeth Lavold's Viking Patterns for Knitting.

My First Project

In February of '06, I finally gave up resisting and took up knitting. (Resisting? All those friends of mine who would knit whenever we were together and show off their beautiful fibers, making me jealous and my hands feel empty. I didn't have time for another hobby, I said. The computer has already ruined my arm, I said. But, yes, resistance was ultimately futile in face of yarn's siren call.)

I thought about what my first project would be for a long time before I confessed to a knitting friend that I wanted to learn how to knit. I knew that I wanted to make something useful. I wanted something I could knit in small, portable pieces and have something finished (little victories!), but also something that would really be special when I was done. So I decided on a blanket. I had a vision of neutral, natural colors spread across my bed or draped on the back of the couch.

That fateful day 14 months ago, my friend Stephanie took me to The Yarn Gallery and helped me make my first purchase. I weighed my options and my budget and settled on Plymouth Yarn's Encore 25% wool 75% acrylic. I wanted to make a blanket and so I bought 16 skeins of yarn. Yes, sixteen.

This project has been good for me because each square (or set, since I bought four colors) has been a learning experience. I started with plain stockinette:


knit Feb/March 2006

and graduated to basketweave:


"Sea Wall" pattern from 100 Afghan Squares to Knit by Debbie Abrahams, knit spring 2006

and eventually to cables:


"Twine" cables pattern from 100 Afghan Squares to Knit by Debbie Abrahams, knit late spring 2006

Then I got a hold of the Harmony Guide stitch dictionary series and went fancy with the cabling:


cable pattern from Harmony Guide's 450 Knitting Stitches - Volume 2, knit summer 2006


cable pattern from Harmony Guide's 220 Aran Stitches and Patterns, knit summer 2006

Which left me with a nice pile of squares:



Then one of my best friends got pregnant and I eagerly leaped upon the opportunity to knit something else, anything else! Lesson learned: 16 skeins of yarn for a first project, no matter how much the newbie knitter is convinced this is the only project for her/him, is just too much.

The 20 squares have only used about 1/3 of my yarn.