Luna Blanket is finally finished!

I've done it!! This has to be one of the most satisfying projects to finally finish, not only because it was so much knitting, but also down to the extensive sewing up squares and weaving in ends (two things that most knitters detest, akin to having to clean the kitchen after baking some amazing cupcakes).

I'm going to try and find some appropriate material to back the blanket as I've already caught my wedding rings on some of the floats on the back (a bit of a stomach drop moment until I saw it hadn't ruined it on the front!)

In other news I made my first set of baby blanket, hat, mittens and booties (called Cherish by Sarah Hatton) with some lovely yarn: Rowan wool cotton DK.  I can't believe how quick these things were to knit and so much fun too:)

I've also finally found the perfect pattern to make a long cozy cardi, and making use of the beautiful soft alpaca DK yarn my mum bought me for Christmas (though I had previously intended this yarn for something else, so had to stock up on a few more skeins for this bigger project).  It's called Snow Bird by Heidi Kirrmaier (one of the few patterns I've liked enough to pay for) knit in one piece from the top down.  I've done the collar, shoulders, arms and main body bit and have just started the pockets (another first for me), and it's growing quickly.  I altered the pattern as the majority is done in reverse stocking stitch, which (not meaning to offend the author) I don't like the look of, so have reversed the instructions so the whole thing is in normal stocking stitch.  I can't wait to be able to wear this and it's so soft and warm (benefit of knitting top down is you can try it on as you go:) ).  Will post pictures as soon as I start taking them!

x

The Luna blanket takes shape

First post of 2012 and it's already half way through February!

Ah well, I had a recent surge of motivation for the Luna Blanket I'm making once I decided to start blocking the 50-odd squares I had knit by that point. My previous attempt of wet blocking (washing the squares and pinning them out to dry, using blocking wires) failed miserably as the yarn DK yarn weight combined with acrylic content meant the squares ended up shrinking back to their original curly messed up forms. So I decided to have a go at steam blocking them, using a wet flannel (wrung out) placed over the knit square, making sure all the edges were tucked down flat and ironing until I saw enough steam coming out (and the knit square underneath was suitably flat). I'm delighted to say that this worked brilliantly! I got through steam blocking all 53 squares in under 3 hours, which was much faster than my wet blocking method and far more successful. It made each square a nice smooth flat square shape ready for sewing together into the blanket.

So I then went about using mattress stitch to join 11-square long rows, then sewed across the squares to hold them all together. I underestimated just how long this would take, and had to spread it over a few days (needless to say the sewing got quite boring, but the end result is totally worth it).

So having sewn together 53/99 squares my motivation for finishing this blanket is sky high and a suggestion from my husband was to knit another 11 squares, so I could add on 1 more row at a time, so it's not too much knitting or sewing all in one go. This is working very well, as I managed to knit another 13 squares (2 to complete the 5th row and 11 for the 6th row) in under 2 weeks and spent some of last weekend adding them to the blanket. Since the weekend, I've knit another 6 squares so will soon be able to add on my 7th row of 11 squares to the blanket.

The finished blanket will be 9 squares wide (the 9 rows) and 11 squares long, and I currently have 6 rows of 11 squares all joined in a skinny blanket.

Current status:

72/ 99 squares complete - 27 squares to go!

36/50 x pattern A

36/49 x pattern B

Looking at those numbers I can't believe I've knitted that many squares...I've got it down to about 1 hour 20 minutes per square, so on the knitting alone (ignoring the fact that it used to take me about 1 hour 30 minutes per square in the beginning) I've spent at least 96 hours knitting this blanket so far (that's 4 complete days!!), and have another 36 hours of knitting left to do.

I'm so looking forward to the finished blanket:)

In other news I started a purple afghan with yarn Lewis bought me for Christmas - thankfully it's not made of squares but rather 3 massively long panels to be joined at the end. I'm really enjoying all the cabling as it uses Woven Braid, Trinity Stitch & Saxon Braid. I've done 12/24 pattern repeats on panel A so am more or less 1/6th of the way through this blanket, but am leaving it alone while I power through the rest of the Luna Blanket.

Don't know where all this blanket-making interest has come from, but I'm enjoying at all none-the-less!