gathering for Wrap With Love

For about an hour and a half yesterday afternoon, WM and I enjoyed the company of other craftspeople at the WSI Institute of TAFE Director's office.


Representatives of our seven campuses and other interested parties had gathered to hear the final tally of blankets knitted or crocheted for Wrap With Love.

I'll let the photos do the talking! (All photos taken and used with permission of the Institute Director.)

Squares being made into blankets at the "eleventh hour".

knitting - mitred squares

Crochet was the star of the day.

And this beauty was by far the most popular item of the day.

Is it still called "Aran" style if it's crochet?

Final tally (drum roll please)

|

|

|
|
|

|

|

V

181

(sixty-three more than last year).

Well done colleagues and students!

I thought I could!

The Western Sydney Institute of TAFE is having their blanket collection and afternoon tea next Wednesday, 3rd August. The blankets will then be delivered to Wrap With Love at the ABC Knit In on Friday 5th August.

Each of the campuses in the institute competes with each other and themselves to see who can make the largest amount of blankets and to beat the individual campus and Institute totals from previous years. In 2009 the Institute donated 73 blankets, and in 2010 we donated 118 blankets.

In both 2009 and 2010, I made four blankets for my campus. This year I again made four blankets - I am nothing if not consistent! All four blankets are made from 8ply (DK) acrylic yarn so that laundering is not an issue.

I did push the time limit a little but I've made it with time to spare. Last night, I sewed in the last of the ends and finished crocheting an edge around the fourth blanket. Here, for your viewing pleasure (and my sigh of satisfaction) is the Pinwheel Blanket.

175cm x 100cm (70" x 40")

And here are the other three blankets I'm donating:

a crocheted blanket

Entrelac Blanket #2

and Fibonnaci Strip blanket


Do you see a theme of bright colours in my work? I thought you might!

blocked now awaiting borders

I knitted a blanket (afghan) in chained diagonal squares. I bought the yarn unlabelled in Wangaratta in 2008 and believed it to be acrylic; after all I only paid $20.00 a kilo for it. While seaming I realised it must have some natural fibre content (probably wool, though possibly mohair) because it kept falling apart as I tried to stitch with it. It's a boucle yarn which means there's an over-spun yarn (probably acrylic) wrapped around an under-spun yarn (natural fibre?). This is fine while knitting or sewing in ends that are attached but means the yarn disintegrates when cut for sewing.

Anyway, after sewing the chains of diagonal squares together the whole thing looked lumpy and I was disappointed as there is a deadline on the finished blanket and the yarn, like mohair, is very difficult to rip. Working on the basis that there must be some natural fibre (almost certainly mohair) involved, I decided to block it - what harm could it do? If it were 100% acrylic it would dry quickly and then shrink back to its original size (and lumpiness). If there were, by chance, natural fibres involved, it should block easily. Judge for yourself: natural fibres?

A wonderful thing about the magic of blocking (apart from getting rid of the awful lumpiness) is that it has grown considerably meaning that it only needs borders along the length to make it a little wider. I’m glad I had trouble with the two knitted on borders I made and went to the trouble of ripping them off – the new borders will be much more narrow!

I did have some help with pin removal – Tom was involved in a cat fight last night: through the window! He scrabbled around on the blanket and several pins were removed in the process (Please note: no animal was harmed in the making of this blanket!)

Now to remove the pins and see what happens…

I lost a little over an inch (3cm) from the width and slightly less from the length; I’m happy with that. What I thought would be 31.5 inches by 63 inches has turned into 33 inches by 70 inches. The side borders will therefore need to be 3 ½ inches wide.

Yay for the magic of blocking!