Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Summer Blanket


I referred to this as a pilot blanket last post. The reason for this is, is the yarn. It is Red Heart Fiesta acrylic, left over from some charity knitting I used to do. I like acrylic. but this particular yarn is tight, and unforgiving on the hands. I had tried this pattern before, and honestly I don't know why, I kept screwing it up, so I frogged it and decided I would not attempt it again with nice yarn, until I could do it without messing up. I don't know why this seemed to make sense at the time. In my head I was probably punishing the pattern (the pattern is FINE, it's me ... again), but really I am now just punishing my hands.

This makes no sense. I just was telling Kathy B. she needed to take care of her hands. So I ought to take my own advice or eat my own hypocrite pie. Here is the thing, I'm about 40% done with this thing. So now I have to finish. Have to, in that weird illogical Ellen way. "Have to" in the way I can see my little sister pull a "weirdo" face at me.

The pattern is the Baby Chalice Blanket. It currently doesn't look like the example on Ravelry. I think it's 1) the yarn 2) I should've used a larger needle, but I rarely swatch for a sweater, why in the holy hot pants would I for a blanket? 3) My tendency to fuss with stitches containing slip stitches.

That's okay, I think the mini blanket will be fine for a city stroll, and when someone kicks it off and it gets run over by the stroller on a city street, it will still be OK after a quick wash.  I am going to just have to get this done, now. Quickly. I have a huge list of things I want to do, with nicer yarn -- including this same blanket again, larger with better yarn.


8 comments:

  1. It's a lovely blanket. Acrylic is very hard on hands and has little to no 'spring''. But it still is a beautiful blanket and washable!!

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  2. WELL ELLEN ITS GORGEOUS. GO AT IT SLOWLY. IM JUST (sorry to Capitialize) working on the hard on the hands poncho a tiny bit at a time. I will share this with ALlison as she could master the stitch for sure

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  3. *lol* holy hot pants...that made me laugh...i like the blanket and the yarn....not so much the hurts your hand part~

    hope you're having a good week~

    katie

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  4. The stitch pattern is lovely and every stroller needs a blanket just like this one. But, yes, DO take care of your hands ... they need to stay in tip-top shape for years of knitting to come!

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  5. Well it's certainly a beautiful blanket you have so far! I'm thinking about knitting one in acrylic myself :)

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  6. I have such problems with big all-over lace patterns. I just keep messing up, always. I can do a lace panel or accent, but doing it on a blanket would be a hot mess for me :P I call it lace fatigue.

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  7. That is such an intricate pattern, I'm not sure I could make it through an entire blanket without making tons of mistakes! I've also always disliked Red Heart for the reason you were talking about, it is unpleasant on the hands. Life is too short to knit with yarn you don't like, but it does look pretty!

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