Pick your Yarn.

I still haven’t got round to sorting the stash. My latest project did not turn out as planned because I really should have learnt to pick a yarn which is suitable for my project. I have been religiously stash busting but because I still haven’t organised the stash and I knew that to properly stash shop, I would need to at least begin organising the stash, I decided to work with whatever came out of the cupboard first for my next project. I opened on my door a fraction and several balls of Hayfield Spirit made a bid for freedom by landing on my head. Perfect, I could make a blanket it would be nice and simple. This was an added bonus as I had a cross country trip coming up and I can only knit simple things in the car. If I start anything complex I will begin to feel ill rather quickly. 

I decided to make a variation on the log cabin style blanket where I would knit the pieces in scarf size strips and then join them together in decreasing L shapes to make a simple geometric blanket. This meant each piece would be portable when knitted, perfect for many hours of car knitting. The yarn knits up beautifully and it has made a wonderfully soft blanket the only problem is the clean geometric pattern I had in my head is completely invisible as the self-striping yarn draws the eye. This means that instead of a geometric pattern it looks like a slightly crazy version of patchwork made by someone who cannot decide on a colour palette. The yarn is great, the design was great, the knitting was great. The final product was not what I was going for. I think it may need to be reknit in a completely plain yarn, but right now I cannot face it. So in denial, I will look for a worthy cause, where someone is in such need of a warm blanket that they can use it and forgive my excursions into colour and I’m planning on avoiding self-striping yarns for a while the habit is broken. 

Felicity
Geometric Blanket Pattern The blanket is knitted in several pieces for all except the largest piece you will need to make two to ensure you have the correct layout. Yarn is Hayfield Spirit Chunky in shade Zest 0400. 

Piece 1 
Cast on 30 stitches. 
Work in moss stitch for 4 rows 
Row 5: P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K20, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1 
Row 6: P1, K1, P1, K1, P22, K1, P1, K1, P1 
Repeat these rows until the piece measures 39 inches. 
Work 4 rows of moss stitch 
Cast off and bind ends. 

Piece 2 
Work this piece twice. 
Cast on 30 stitches. 
Work in moss stitch for 4 rows 
Row 5: P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K20, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1 
Row 6: P1, K1, P1, K1, P22, K1, P1, K1, P1 
Repeat these rows until the piece measures 29 inches. 
Work 4 rows of moss stitch 
Cast off and bind ends. 

Piece 3 
Work this piece twice. 
Cast on 30 stitches. 
Work in moss stitch for 4 rows 
Row 5: P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K20, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1 
Row 6: P1, K1, P1, K1, P22, K1, P1, K1, P1 
Repeat these rows until the piece measures 19 inches. 
Work 4 rows of moss stitch 
Cast off and bind ends. 

 Piece 4 
Work this piece twice. 
Cast on 30 stitches. 
Work in moss stitch for 4 rows 
Row 5: P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K20, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1 
Row 6: P1, K1, P1, K1, P22, K1, P1, K1, P1 
Repeat these rows until the piece measures 9 inches. 
Work 4 rows of moss stitch 
Cast off and bind ends. 

 Lay out the pieces according to the schematic below and sew all pieces together.

Comments

  1. Sande FrancisMay 10, 2021 at 5:21 PM

    This is a great take on the Log Cabin style blanket. I'm thinking I just might do this by picking up sts along the edges of the existing pieces. I can do it starting with the smaller or the larger pieces. Did you have a color scheme in mind when you were thinking of this? One color or many?

    ReplyDelete
  2. FeliciPageMay 11, 2021 at 5:46 AM

    Hi Sande,
    Thanks for commenting! I'm not a fan of picking up hundreds of stitches and I like portable projects, hence this design, but you certainly could do it that way. I think you would need to pick up 100-160 stitches so I would definitely recommend a circular needle. As for yarn, I have some Stylecraft softie in a burgundy in the stash that I was thinking of repeating this with, although in my head the blanket pattern would also look good in blue.
    Let me know how you get on!!!
    Felicity

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Quick Textured Corner to Corner Blanket

Image
So I managed to escape from work for a week and have a holiday up in the North East of England. I thought I would get a lot of knitting done with all the driving. However, the roads in Durham and Northumberland are not conducive to knitting!! I still managed to get this blanket finished. It knits up really quickly. It took me two evenings to make but if you aren’t exhausted from all day hiking it would probably only take you one. I hope you like it! Felicity Pattern: Yarn: DMC Cocoon from https://www.enfys.me.uk/ Needles: 12mm zings Abbreviations: dec1 – slip one stitch, knit one stitch and pass the slipped stich over. Yo – yarn over Cast on 3 stitches Row 1: K3 Row 2-7: K1, yo knit to end Row 8: K1, yo, K2, P2, K4, Row 9: K1, yo knit to end Row 10: K1, yo, K2, P4, K4, Row 11: K1, yo knit to end Row 12: K1, yo, K2, p6, K4, Row 13: K1, yo knit to end Row 14: K1, yo, K2, P8, K4 Row 15: K1, yo knit to end Row 16: K1, yo, K2, P4, K2, P4, K4 Row 17: K1,...
Read more

When Bad Yarn Happens to Good People…

Image
  I know things have been very quiet the past few weeks. It’s been the start of term and that always means several things at work 1) Everything gets manically busy and there is no time for anything fun. 2) All the students come back and give everyone Freshers Flu. This is never a fun experience and this years delightful viral episode meant that for two whole weeks I felt so awful I didn’t even knit. However, I am back, and I have a new blanket pattern for you all. A not insignificant amount of the delay was due to the yarn I chose to use for this blanket. It seemed like a lovely cranberry with a silvery twist through it in the yarn shop. However, it is truly horrible to knit with it splits, stretches and is impossible to block. The blanket will knit to any gauge (although the size will obviously change) so I highly recommend ignoring this yarn and using something, anything, nicer! Enjoy! Felicity     Pattern Using 12mm needles cast on 104 stitches (I highly ...
Read more