Blocking

I finished weaving in all the ends of the snezi shrug and it got a thorough soaking in some Soak. Now it's blocking in the bedroom. I decided to wait until it's dry to sew up the seams since I hear things can grow in the blocking process and I think this one did. Just check out the size of it on my bedroom floor.
Now the preferred area of drying is not my floor since,as you will notice in the above picture there is a cat dangerously close to the (nearly) finished product. She is refusing to step away though and trying to look innocent about being next to a slightly damp piece of cashmerino.
I shall sit as close as possible without touching it to annoy the human. Ok, maybe just the tail shall touch.

Just remember who feeds you cat.

Why I'm No Longer Allowed in Any Store That Sells Yarn

After I had a massage this morning I went to Wal-Mart for the first time in months (this should tell you something about the local Wal-Mart that I have to be completely and totally relaxed before I even think about entering there). I went to pick up this:

A birthday present for my aunt. What I came out with is this:

So I might have new thing for Bernat chunky yarn.


I have explanations for most of these purchases. The navy and grey are going to be used for a secret present. The size 6 needles, I am convinced, will bring me the utmost happiness and joy when I knit these bad boys

into a fuzzy, lace type scarf. The other Bernat yarn? I have no excuse for it except to say that I loved the color, they were both from the same dye lot, they were the last 2 skeins, and they were less than $2 each. I think they will knit up into a fab scarf.

Work on the preemie-baby-sweater-that-may-never-end continues. Here it hangs out in the specially designated "blocking sink" (isn't it nice that even though I have a tiny apartment I have 2 bathroom sinks so I can devote one solely to soaking my knit projects?!?!).

I started blocking the back and one of the front panels and then I ran out of t-pins (should have picked up that second box today at Wal-Mart).
You can see how the blocking changes the front panel's size. On the left is the right panel and the on the right is the unblocked left panel.

Finally, I owe the faggot stitch scarf, which I've renamed the autumn scarf due to the pretty burnt color, an apology. A few nights ago I cursed at it. I said not nice things to it. And it was all my fault. I was reading blogs while trying to knit. I wasn't paying attention. I may have missed one of the billion K2togs that happens in this scarf. And I lost it. It had nothing, I assure you, to do with the fact that it was almost midnight (ok, it had everything to do with that). After yelling and much sighing I began the process of ripping back to a row where I could actually see where the stitches were all the while praying that I wouldn't have to frog the whole thing (since that has already happened 3 times).

I find a row where I'm able to pick up all the stitches and then feel compelled to knit all the rows I had to pull out (somewhere between 5 and 10). As I start to knit I realize that the yarn overs are twisted in the wrong direction and the other stitches probably are too. But I press on fixing as I go. I do not end up knitting all the rows that I pulled out before shear exhaustion took over. I was a little upset that I could not finish one project perfectly, but then look at this:

Can you find the wonky row? Neither can I. And I've looked closely. Thank you autumn scarf for being so forgiving and hiding all my mistakes deep within your super soft rows. Never again will I be angry with you.

Block Party Weekend

Today, while out furniture shopping (read about it here) I picked up some t-pins. That means that today was the beginning of a blocking extravaganza. Here's a baby blanket that I had finished a few weeks ago (pre-blocking):

I made it from leftover yarn. The red is deep red Red Heart that I used for the Simple Scarf. The blue is a Red Heart sport weight in Skipper Blue (loved the color!). The multicolored yarn is Red Heart super saver in Mexicana. I originally got the pattern from www.nancyhearne.com. But the pattern is no longer available. I've included it at the bottom of the page if you want to use it.


This is baby blanket during blocking. It's a "preemie" sized blanket at about 15 inches long.

And...I finished all the rectangles for the preemie sweater! I knit the last panel up while waiting for the high school band to perform at a concert on Thursday night.

And here it is pre blocking and before I sewed in the ends but it's set up in the way that it will be pieced together. I like how the purple in the yarn made these interesting tiger stripes in the sleeves. I think I'm going to make a hat and booties to match.

My friend Jenn is already begging for one when she has a baby. I was going to block this tonight too but I decided to wait since I wasn't sure if I had enough t-pins. The sweater should be done by the end of the week me thinks. I can't wait to be done with this cutie!

Raised Garter Stripes blanket:

Materials:
1 oz. each of 3 colors of yarn
US size 5 needles (the original pattern calls for size 6 needles)

Rows 1 and 2: With color *, K across
Rows 3-6: Work stockinette stitch (K on right side, P on wrong side)
Rows 7 and 8: K across; change to color *
Rows 9 and 10: K across; change to color *
Rows 11-14: Work stockinette stitch
Rows 15 and 16: K across; change to color *
Rows 17 and 18: K across; change to color *
Repeat rows 1-18 continuing to change colors for pattern.
*= colored yarn, you want to continually cycle through the colors. First A then B and then C. This makes the color changes different each time through the pattern.