Lizzardie Knits

Warmth

It started as a comfort project. The plan was to work on it every Wednesday night, in an effort to fill a giant void. It didn't really work, and in the end, summer proved to be too hot for working on a wool/alpaca blanket. But, I recently got a second wind, a newfound love, and my throw/afghan/blanket/whatever you want to call it is complete:



Pattern: Knit Picks
Yarn: Here goes (all from Knit Picks)... Wool of the Andes Bulky Hand-Dyed, Storm, 1 skein; Shamrock, Fitzpatrick, 2 skeins; Shine Worsted, Sea Spray, 2 skeins; Suri Dream Hand-Dyed, Stucco, 2 skeins; Sierra (now Cadenza), Natural, 1 skein; Quarry, Empress Green, 2 skeins; Shine Worsted, Cream, 2 skeins; Suri Dream, Stone, 2 skeins (and that's in order of the stripes)
Needles: US 10.5
Timeline: 4/11/07 - 11/14/07

Of course, weaving in the ends was a big pain on this project - I couldn't think of a way to carry all of those yarns up the side, so I had to cut every 2-5 rows. :-( Once I got in the habit of weaving in the ends as I went, things went much, much faster (or at least it felt like that). In my last repeat, I had about 5 inches of Sierra/Cadenza to spare.

I don't particularly like how the bottom and top edges curl. If I were to do it over again, I would start and end with 2 rows of garter stitch, instead of going straight into the pattern. But... I probably won't be making this again, or at least not for awhile (who likes to weave in ends?).

I did want to at least attempt to block it, and it definitely needed a bath (I think all knits do) before I considered it done done. But... this was not going to fit in my bathroom sink, where I normally wash my handknits. So, I put it in the washer (gulp), put in some wool wash, made sure it was on cold water, and put it on a soak and spin cycle. Worked like a charm! When it was done, I laid down a few towels on my dining room table, and let it dry overnight.

The finished blanket is about 40" by 60" and is the perfect size to curl up on the couch with (which I do frequently, now that the temperatures have really taken a fall). It's soft, it's warm, and I guess in the end it provides some comfort, even if it failed to meet what was probably a totally unachievable goal in making me feel better.

posted by Lizzardie @ 4:18:00 PM