blocking is not for the faint hearted

Imagine a rectangle 102cm x 96cm.

Now think about 126 round-headed pins. Yes, that's right, one-hundred-and-twenty-six!

That’s how many pins I used to block my Blanket for Emily.

It’s knitted in 10ply (Aran-weight) Fiddle-De-Dee by Cleckheaton; a sadly-discontinued line of 100%cotton which is both machine-washable and machine dryable.

Because the blanket was knitted in cotton, I needed less pins than if it had been knitted in wool.

I could get away with one pin in each of those scallops because cotton doesn't have “memory” like wool does. Once stretched, it’s stretched. Wool bounces back to it’s original shape (if not stretched too far). Items knitted of wool may need blocking again after a few washes if they were not severely blocked the first time. Cotton, on the other hand, stays stretched.

As I was saying, this is a good thing.

Good because I needed less pins to block it and was therefore on my hands and knees for a lot less time than I might have been!

Good because my niece can wash and dry this many times and it should retain its shape (unless she stretches it more (by hanging by clothes pegs or some such)!

Good because this particular cotton can be dried in the machine which, in the weather we’ve been having, is almost the only way to get the washing dry!

I love the way that blocking evens out the puckering that occurs while doing entrelac in stocking stitch.

So, may I present another finish for June? A blanket for Emily (details on Ravelry). The photo was taken while the blanket was still blocking (and before the ends were sewn in) inside on a very wet winter’s day without flash because that washed-out the colour. The lights were on which, of course, gives a yellow cast to the photo. The yellow is more lemon than the photo shows but I couldn’t get the right tones by editing.

The ends have been sewn in now but you don’t need another photo, do you?

Five finishes this month! I hope I can keep this up for the rest of the year next month’s 2013: Year of the Finished Object challenge.

a blanket for Emily

If you’re looking for the May post for 2013: The Year of the Finished Project, it’s over here.

As you may know from this post, my eldest niece (my sister’s eldest daughter) had her first baby on 23 April. Being just two days before my own birthday, you could say she was an early birthday present.

This is the same baby I made the Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt for (because it is her mama’s favourite childhood story).

But I’ve gone a little less bright and a little more “pretty” for her baby blanket.

I didn’t start the blanket until the day after she was born, and then I ripped it out (too wide and wrong colour combination) and started again two days later. It’s not that I didn’t know she was coming, of course. It’s just that I didn’t know she would be a girl (although I had a feeling she might be!)

I was also being true to my own rules – no new knitting projects until others were finished – but a new baby is exceptional! They don’t come along in my family every day!

I have not been in the mood for knitting between saying goodbye to DD and the Grandsons, being sick, and working over at the “renovator’s delight” (henceforth known as “RD” -- there will be a post soon, I promise)!

But there’s nothing like a new baby to bring out all those craft-y tendencies!

I looked through my stash and decided to use up my Fiddle De Dee cotton (by Cleckheaton, sadly discontinued) because it’s a heavier weight (10ply/Aran/worsted) than the other cotton in my stash (we’re coming in to winter) and, more importantly, it’s machine washable and dryable! I don’t know that my niece knows such a thing as hand-washing exists! It knits up very softly although, being cotton, is quite hard on the hands when knitting for extended periods. I only had small amounts of each of four colour-ways, three skeins (150g) of lemon, and six skeins (300g) each of mint, a lemon/blue/white variegated yarn and an lemon/mint/pink/white variegated yarn.

The right combination and the right pattern were going to be important so an entrelac blanket it must be (hi Cindy! LOL). My first choice was to use the two variegated yarns but I didn’t like the combination so I settled on the mint and pink variation (of course! LOL)

Anyway, I hope to see Emily next weekend and wish her mama “happy mother’s day” for the first time. But I doubt I’ll have the blanket finished. This is where I was up to on Saturday afternoon; I’ve done part of the next tier since then!.

(Thanks Diane for the photo taken by iPhone during our workshop on Saturday)

If I had time to knit all day I might have got it done …

But there’s no way that was going to happen!

It will be sweet when it is, don't you think?

Linking up with Barbara at Cat Patches for the New FO challenge (on the last possible day!).

Aran weight - really?

Take another look at the baby blanket on the cover - the one that many visitors to the blog have been admiring. Does it look like Aran weight to you?

No, I didn't think so! More like 5ply wool [or similar] but hey, who am I to argue? According to the book, it's medium weight - Worsted, Aran, Afghan; or that which we, in Australia, call 10ply! The sample is apparently knitted in Bernat Satin which the company describes as "the perfect luxury knitting worsted weight yarn, ideal for all knit and crochet projects" and a "glorious yarn with a clean defined stitch" - it's 100% acrylic so I was right about the wool or equivalent!

So, this is the one I'll be knitting first because my brother told me on Friday that they are expecting a girl and I have lots of variegated pink, Aran weight Fiddle De Dee cotton to knit! I just have to finish  the lemon Tilting Blocks blanket I started for my little niece [before I knew she was a she]. That blanket will go to DD instead because grandbubby didn't want to reveal his/her sex just now!!

Here's the first public photo of Granbubby the First! DD and SIL have more up on Facebook but I don't want to turn this into Grandma's Brag Book!!

yarn acquisition

DD and I were discussing baby blankets. She mentioned how much she had loved the one I had knitted for my neighbour whose son was born in February.

It was knitted in Cleckheaton Fiddle De Dee cotton which is now a discontinued yarn. She really liked that blanket. It was soft and machine washable and dryable [which is very rare for cotton in my experience].

So, what's a mother [first time grandmother] to do? Look on Ebay of course. There have been several occasions where I have tried to find this particular yarn with no luck at all. But two weeks ago, I found some! In fact, I found quite a lot! And I bought a lot!! Here are the latest additions to my stash. Most of this is destined to become baby blankets. The rest will wait until I find out what it wants to be! The photos are copied from Ebay [thanks Rhonda and Amanda]. You will see more photos when the yarn is actually knitted!

Six balls of the same yarn as above. That's enough for a small blanket for pram or bassinet.


Six balls of mint:


Six balls of a pale lemon, pink and white variegated yarn:


20 balls of a pastel variegated yarn [including pink] - surely someone will have girl at some stage!


and 23 balls of lemon [a safe colour when mother2B doesn't know what her baby's sex will be]


I also bought ten balls of white but have no photo to show you. That's 71 balls altogether!! Can you tell I love this yarn!

In addition, I bought six balls of mauve Super Soft cotton


and ten balls of Sirdan Cotton Lustre in a lovely teal colour.


I already had ten balls of Spotlight 8ply cotton in blue [blanket in progress] and some balls of white cotton in both 4ply and 8ply so I think I have enough cotton to keep me going for a while.

FO - a diversion

Here is the baby blanket I finished knitting some months ago. The photo is a bit dark but true to colour. Tomodachi [a.k.a. Tom] is snooping around in the right of the picture. I sewed in the ends of the blanket on 28th December during my avoidance-of-lace-but-finishing-other-things period. It was blocked last week and photos were finally taken today - mostly to distract readers from the boringness of that "other project"! Here's another photo taken by WM in the role of photographer with my 51yr old bear [Ted] and Tomodachi assisting!



Although I didn't strictly knit this during the Long Lacy Summer, I did finish it during that time. It qualifies as lace [having both yo's and K2tog.] so this blanket is my first contribution to LLS.

The pattern is Snow Berries Blanket from "Easy Afghans for Knitters". I knitted mine in Cleckheaton Fiddle De Dee [100% cotton] on 4.5mm [US size 7] needles. I used the 500g I bought on special at Australian Country Spinners' Mill Shop when I was in Wangaratta in July. This photo shows how much of the ten balls I have left - from the last ball which was not enough to do another circuit of the blanket and the leftovers of two other balls.

It's a pity this yarn is discontinued - it's lovely and soft, and knits up quickly.

I made it for my next-door neighbour who is expecting her first child in February. I love it so much I might keep it for my first grand-child and knit something else for the neighbour. Hopefully, NDN will have a girl because this is such a boy's blanket! [Just kidding - I really want to keep it!] DD says I'm rushing things a bit - they're not even married yet; besides I knitted it for NDN so I should give it to her. I don't agree. I knitted it - I can choose who the recipient should be, can't I?

For those of you still following that "other project" - I have completed 10 repeats; that's a quarter of the centre panel!

Baby blanket knitting finished

My next door neighbour, who doesn't even know I have a blog let alone read it, is expecting her first child in February. I bought 500g of Cleckheaton Fiddle De Dee cotton [white/blue/mint/lemon colourway] while I was in Wangaratta in July. A couple of years ago my parents gave me this book for Christmas. I found a pattern I thought would work with the yarn and modified it for my needs.

It was a beginners' lace pattern so it was monotonous and as the blanket got larger and heavier, the knitting became more unwieldy, even though I was using circular needles and all the weight was either in my lap or on the lounge [couch, sofa] beside me. The 6mm needles [US size 10] were hard to use for long periods too. However, it was a pretty fast knit - each 50g skein did about three pattern repeats [24 rows] and I used just under nine skeins for the knitting and a little more than one skein for the crocheted border.

The knitting of my version is finished. It doesn't look like the afghan in the book but that doesn't matter. It was never my intention to duplicate the picture in the book; that would be impossible: my yarn is variegated and thicker. I'm looking forward to seeing how the pattern comes out after blocking.

Photos of my version after the blocking and the ends have been sewn in!