Saturday, December 1, 2007

Husband's blanket update

Making good progress on Husband's afghan. The strips of blue and black Cascade 220 has been sewn together and now I just have to knit the top and bottom stripes. Progress picture:

Basic recipe:

Hold yarn double, cast on 20 stitches onto size 10US needles.

First six rows: Knit 5, Purl 5, Knit 5, Purl 5.

Next six rows: Purl 5, Knit 5, Purl 5, Knit 5.

Repeat, alternating rows so you get a checkerboard texture.

Continue until yarn runs out.

Make several strips. Sew them together so that the checkerboard is consistent throughout.

What I have left to do -- pick up stitches along the top in blue and continue the checkerboard texture so that there will be a frame of blue stripes around the black, blue, black, blue, black strips. Repeat with the bottom edge.

I did colors as strips to be knit together, so that direction of the checkerboard texture is the same throughout. Also, strips are more portable than hauling around an ever growing blanket.

The blanket is almost 5 feet wide and I don't have a size 10US needle long enough. So I finally broke down and ordered a set of the Knit Picks Options set of needles and ordered a 60 inch cable.

In the mean time, what will I do? I'm still thinking about my Rectangle of Malabrigo using the Malabrigo I have:

The colors are:

2 skeins Purple Mystery (one wound into a ball, one still in the hank) Notice how much darker one is than the other.

1 skein Buscando Azul, split into three balls -- Love. This. Color.

1 skein Oceanos still in the hank.

1 skein Saphire Green (their spelling). It's left over from a house coat sweater I made for myself last year. It's true, Malabrigo pills like crazy. But I love it anyway. So soft and cozy.

1 skein Pollen.

1 skein Tiger Lily.

What to do with all this Malabrigo goodness? I'm thinking of a log cabin afghan with green central squares. But I have more blue and purple than yellow and orange. Either I have to buy more yarn (oh the hardship) or leave off one skein of purple and blue.

I need to think about this.

Oh, by the way, the yarn I used for Husband's afghan is not machine washable. Which means I'll be washing this by hand. How could I have forgotten this detail?

For Brother Two's afghan, I did not make the same mistake. I made him pick only from the superwash (wool yarn chemically treated to withstand machine washing and drying without shrinking and felting) worsted weight yarn from the Knit Picks catalog. That yarn and Mason-Dixon Knitting should be here any day now.

1 comment:

Saren Johnson said...

I'd say go with the stuff you have and when you get more add it. I've got a bunch of sock yarn I'm trying to decide what to do with. Same problem as you.