Fourth term is moving at a fast pace, as it must being a short seven weeks long. But for my HSC (2010) class, the same amount of work has to be squeezed in... One week remains, then two staff days, then I'm jetting off to New Zealand for two weeks. Can't wait.
Two weeks ago, the Ribbons Baby Blanket looked like a big blob, and I had no idea if I was going to have to do a fifth colour sequence of stripes or not to reach the desired size. I was hoping not as each round was taking at least 45 minutes, and it would have meant not being finished before my colleague went on maternity leave.
I tried adding a second circular needle so I could stretch out the knitting and measure it, but couldn't get the length I needed (I had some Knit Pro cable connectors on order, but they hadn't arrived). So I put three sides of the blanket on scrap yarn, leaving the fourth on the needle, and stretched it out on the spare bed.
Calli came to see what I was up to, and immediately sat on the blanket and tried to doze off. It had the Calli seal of approval. And the blanket was big enough too. I finished that stripe then started the edging - a sequence of 2 rows of garter of each of the four colours, then the first colour again, then cast off. Throughout the blanket I only changed colours on a knit row so that all the colour changes were crisp on the right side - so the first row of each reverse stocking stitch stripe was knit. At each corner, the yarn overs on every second round were knit/purled through the back of the stitch on the subsequent round to close them. There were two stitches between each increase at the corners, but in the border they became 4, 6, 8, 10 and then 12 stitches apart, resulting in a more rounded corner. Here's the right side:
And the wrong side:
The cast off took about three hours over two nights. No special cast off. I'm amazed I got it so even and the right tension first try, but I was careful as I had no desire to rip back and cast off c. 700 stitches a second time. Then there was another evening spent weaving in the ends, then it was washed and dried. It gave off a little dye - nothing too bad and not more than I expected (the skeins were not washed to the point of no dye coming off them straight after dyeing). The finished product:
Done with six days to spare, the finished blanket was gifted on Thursday to my colleague, and was very much a surprise.
Wouldn't you just know, I have to start another blanket after Christmas? Since this one isn't what you could class a "surprise", I am concealing all details (colour, design) until it is gifted. I will only say that the cotton has been purchased... I do not foresee more than this one further blanket in the near future. I hope.
Not sure if I'll blog again before going away or while I'm away. I've just downloaded BlogPress for my iPhone to give a try. Next weekend will be busy with visiting my parents, who will be Calli-minding (they love having their "grandcat" visit). I may tweet some "postcards" while I'm gone and maybe some posts, but otherwise, I'll post about the trip when I return.
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