This could be the start of something big…

Tags

AIWCC, blanket, charity, Knitters Guild, Lizard Ridge, Noro, Ravelry, stripes, yarn

I’ve knitted 23 pairs of socks to date. Most of these pairs have used significantly less than 100g of yarn. I’ve been saving the remains for emergency repairs and darning but I don’t really envisage using them for such (particularly as my own pairs have had the heels reinforced prior to wear). I thought it would be nice to use the leftovers in a blanket. Ravelry has hundreds of projects, ranging from rows of stripes to patchwork squares and even stuff-as-you-go hexagons.

Before browsing too much, I drew up a shortlist of criteria that would hopefully help me decide which kind of scrap blanket would work for me:

• Work in pieces to enable a good arrangement of colours
• Project should be easy to carry around
• Add in a neutral colour to balance some of the highly variegated yarns

Finally, I decided on making a Lizard Ridge blanket (pattern by Laura Aylor), using grey as one of the striping colours and all my leftovers for the contrast. Lizard Ridge is knitted in worsted-weight Noro yarn so each square is larger than one you’d get using 4-ply/fingering wool. I started off by knitting a square that was one-repeat (i.e. about a third) wider. It seemed a bit on the floppy side. I decided to knit as written and just make more squares. I was fortunate enough to sit next to Caitriona at December’s Knitters’ Guild meeting and she commented on her dislike of sewing together her Lizard Ridge blanket. It made me think. Seriously. About all the squares I would need… I recalled the fund-raising charity blanket that the Stitch ‘n’ Bitch group at the AIWCC made (I was one of the ‘lucky’ ones involved in its assembly)…

• Should I start all over again and knit bigger squares?
• Should I just bite the bullet and resign myself to a lot of sewing-up?

The solution is a compromise of sorts – my squares are now rectangles. They are still 43 stitches wide, as in the pattern, but they feature six not four sets of stripes.

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Perseverance

Tags

charity, knitting, socks

I went to my first knitting group and there were people knitting socks. In the round with a bunch of teeny weeny thin needles that looked like elongated cocktail sticks. These sock knitters intimidated me a bit. One knitted so smoothly and quickly you could see the stripes growing by the minute. Another was working an intricate lace design that she’d adapted. Adapted??? More intimidation. Up to then I’d always been a follow-the-instructions-to-the-letter kind of person. This was also no silent group – it was Stitch ‘n’ Bitch and there was as at least as much chat as knit!

If people were knitting socks under these conditions then it couldn’t be that hard, could it? And of course they swore there was nothing to it. I believed them and started on a  pair of fingerless mitts as a good introduction. The needles repeatedly slipped out my stitches, landing with an annoying ting on the wooden floor. I used bad words. This was an exercise that was clearly not going anywhere fast. I persevered and made the mitts. Loosely knit and a tad too large they just about functioned as wristwarmers for working at a computer. But they didn’t look good and I gave up any further thoughts of working in the round.

I focussed on other things knitterly but I watched those skilled knitters with their socks flying off their needles and I really really wanted to be like them!

Early in 2012 I decided it was now or never – my learning challenge for the year was to knit socks! After stitching a wedding gift in the spring and contributing significantly  to the Knitting for Water charity blanket it was mid-summer before I got started.

Bamboo needles, a standard self-striping sock yarn and I was on my way … well, sort of. Switching from a square set-up on 4 needles to triangular on 3 made a huge difference. I knit, round and round, childishly pleased by the stripes growing in front of my eyes. Yes, my knitting friends were right. It is easy. I have a new addiction.

Knitting for Water

Tags

Afghan (blanket), AIWCC, charity, knitting, yarn

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THE IDEA To knit enough squares to make an afghan blanket to be raffled off to raise funds for Tabitha …

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