Damn, Knit & Blast It

I was a bit ambitious to say “The end of the blankie is in sight”!

I’ve managed another 6 squares of the Blankie - That brings me up to 58 out of 81 squares or 71.34% (OK…I am getting a little bit obsessed with the progress reports…..)

I know it’s not super exciting but here’s strip no.6, fresh off the darning needle, read to be sewn to the other 5 strips.

I had intended to do a little of the blankie, do something else, then do a little more.

I should have known that my nature just doesn’t work like that. Once I got stuck in, I wanted to focus exclusively on it and finish. I really don’t find it possible to have several projects going at once. In a way, I envy those of you who have several WIPs (Works In Progress) on the go! I have to stop one project and put all my energies into the new one. Poor Eveleen is languishing untouched by the sofa still….

So what kind of knitter does that make me? I have friends who are definitely “Process Knitters” and have a serious case of “Start-itis”. In English, that means they love the act of choosing the pattern, knitting the object, stroking the yarn etc but are not too bothered by what to do with the Finished Object. In fact, one friend regularly knits and finishes beautiful garments then promptly gives them to the charity shop!

Startitis is a term I first heard from the Yarn Harlot for someone who loves the thrill of starting a project and often gets distracted by exciting new projects before ever finishing them. Project after project is researched, purchased and started. Lots of UFOs (UnFinished Objects) can haunt these people! I have another friend who is ruthless. Once she goes off a project it is literally thrown away unfinished so it doesn’t hang around “dragging her down”. As a grateful recipient of some of her discarded yarn, I have to admit to envying her ability to let go.

My brain is not wired like my friends at all!

I am most definitely a hoarding squirrel who finds it almost impossible to let go of yarn and projects “just in case it comes in useful…”. (My stash is shamefully rotund….Obese in fact…..) Even disastrous ones like the aptly named “Buggering Felted Skirt” that took me two years to finally get rid of

I can’t bring myself to knit something “for the sake of it”. Even if I’d really enjoy the process. For me, it has to have a purpose.
There’s also “product knitters” who knit because they want the finished item. I’m closer to that definition but I couldn’t bring myself to knit a project I found dull just because I needed a new “thingy”.

I’m enthusiastic when I start (aren’t we all?) then, once I get past half way and the end point comes into view, I get a kind of manic, woolly mist descends on me.

Must finish! Knit faster! Who needs sleep! I want to wear it tomorrow!

Life goes on hold because “I must finish this sleeve”. I guess this is why I’m so focused on doing one project at a time - you seem to finish faster

I have got the “woolly mist” when it comes to some of these squares for the Blankie. As soon as I realised I only had two more of these “Beaded Circles” in Navy to complete…

I couldn’t stop myself, even though I don’t need one of them until the final strip! I guess that’s the pleasure of knitting this type of blanket.

The closest term I can come up with for my knitting tenancies, borrowing heavily from (Belbin’s team role definitions), is “Completer Finisher”.

I.e.

The completer finisher dots the i’s and crosses the t’s. He or she gives attention to detail, aims to complete and to do so thoroughly. They make steady effort and are consistent in their work. They are not so interested in the glamour of spectacular success.

Hmmm…. I wouldn’t say “No” to some spectacular success

Although like most people , I’m a mix of the different Belbin roles and take on a different role and persona when wearing my “work” head!

For the therapists among you, I’m sure that reveals a whole lot about my inner psyche!

If you read any number of knitting blogs, you will have already heard of Ravelry.

I was luck enough to hear about Ravelry quite early on in it’s quest for Beta testers and got my invite in July. If you want to look me up, my username is the fabulously imaginative “susancrowe”….

For those of you who have assumed I am now blogging in another language - I’ll explain that….

Ravelry = A community driven website where you record data and pictures of all your knitting and crochet projects, books, needles, hooks and yarn. If you’ve already blogged it, you can link to your blog post! It also has forums! Yours and everybody else’s projects are then in a huge searchable database.

So….imagine if you are thinking about knitting a certain pattern, you can look it up in Ravelry and see that there are 20 people who’ve made it, what yarn they used, what they thought of the pattern, problems etc. You can do the same with yarn too! Click the Ravelry link for more info…

Beta Testing = Ravelry is new and is being written and developed as it goes along. It hasn’t been released “Live” to all users yet but is up and running and needs controlled numbers of users to use the complete website and test it’s functionality. Then give feedback on improvements and bugs. That what a beta tester does - go on and use it report back bugs and improvement suggestions but don’t throw a hissy fit if it’s not perfect yet!!

Invites = because it’s not “live” to the general public yet, everybody can’t get on at once so there is a queue to join. When it’s your turn, you get an invite! The anticipation has been driving some knitters quite mad!

I have just got to the point where I have loaded up pictures and details of all my projects that I’ve already blogged about and have just started to load projects “yet to be seen” on my blog.
Not fair on my loyal readers huh?

OK - there’s only one so far - my Daisy Scarf - I’ll show you….

This is the Daisy Scarf from Rowan 38, this book…

And this is the Rowan piccy…

I used the Kid Classic given in the pattern but mine is squishier and softer than it looks in the picture. I suspect it had been starched and blocked to death for the photo shoot!

The pattern is a strange sort of “bunchy stitch”, wrapping the yarn around the needle 3 times then dropping the extra wraps on the next row and knitting them together to make the swirl (Don’t try and knit it from that description - you’ll need the pattern!)

Here’s a close up of the pattern stitch…

It grew really fast and it is a favourite. Especially as I don’t really knit a lot of scarves!

Here’s an “action shot” of the scarf on…

The edging is cute but sewn on afterwards - it felt a bit like a design after thought to me. Then scarf is much better with it though…

I only used two of the three balls called for so I will at some point make some matching gloves (assuming I ever finish the Blankie!)

Wow!

This Blanket is a bigger project than I anticipated. I have been really “going for it” and I still have only achieved 52 out of 81 squares (Thats 64% !)

Here’s the heap of blanket that quietly evolving in the corner….

Ben has now got used to the sight of me with a bad case of “Blue Hand”. I said the dye was loose on the darkest colours didn’t I?

Take a look at the state of my hands after knitting about half a dark blue square…

My thumb gets particularly lurid….

The good news is that it washes off easily with soap, water and slight attention from a nailbrush.

If 64% doesn’t really convey much to you, here’s a shot of my chart for marking off the squares…

The pink squares are done. Look!! The 5 complete strips are done on the right and I’m happy to report they are all sewn together too!

I’m also ticking off the completed squares of each type as I do them. The lines highlighted in yellow are the ones where I have finished knitting all of that type of square! Exciting huh?

I’m actually finishing some parts!

Do you remember the curtains I was about to make after decorating my spare room? No, not the bedroom I’m doing the Denim Blankie for. The room I did before that? Unfortunately, because the dates on my blog posts don’t lie, there is documentary proof that it’s taken me since February to make the curtains I said I talked about in my Window Dressing post.

I have been really “going for it” making the blankie squares and sewing them into strips.

I have today finished the magical 41st square - magical because it is the half way mark

I’m enjoying the blankie immensely but there is a down side - the Denim yarn is notoriously hard on the hands and joints to work with and my Golfer’s Elbow( first talked about here and here) has started to play up again. But more about the blankie later….

To give my painful hands and elbow a rest I thought I’d finally get on with the curtains. I had already bought all the materials and put up the curtain pole so I just had to get on with them.

Here’s the “stuff”…

As you can see, I’d chosen the “giant eyelet” type header tape. First time I’d used that so rather scary! Fortunately, it turned out to be ridiculously easy, especially with the instructions on this site.

Mewsley, however, did seem to need to inspect my measurements when I was cutting out???

She wasn’t impressed by what she saw….

Then she told me where I was going wrong…

I sometimes get the strangest feeling that Thug and Mewsley think they are in charge???

So here they are! All hemmed, ironed and lovely!

I’m really chuffed with them and I really can’t think why I left it so long to do them.

To much knitting I guess…

Talking of knitting (this is a knitting blog and not a curtain blog after all) as I was trying to rest my arm, it gave me a push towards sewing the vertical strips of my blankie together.

Wanna see? Ok then….

Looking good huh?

Just in case you’re wondering, the little cat trying to get out of the box is named “Schrodinger”….that’s a quantum physics joke for Ben….