Aside from getting eaten alive by mutant mosquitos, I mean. The lake area of southeastern Wisconsin is a breeding ground for bugs that laugh in the face of full-strength DEET, and that’s where we spent the Fourth. We camped out with friends and had a damn good time, celebrating marriages and happiness and whiskey. Ah, the whiskey.
Anyway. You came here for the knitting talk, right? Not to read about my various whiskey-fuelled exploits. Well. I know I talked about wanting to finish up that headband, and I still do, but I just can’t face it right now. It’s still too emotional. Instead I’ve been working on something else entirely.
Noro Kureyon log cabin squares. (click through to see the colorway numbers.) Last Thursday, no, the Thursday before that… June 28th, I picked up the first ball (colorway 40) and tried to make a log cabin square out of stockinette stitch. It was a fabulous failure, but I tried four times to make it work. No luck. I resisted the garter stitch (which I knew would work) because I loved the way Kureyon was knitting up in the stockinette, but I had to give in. Garter just works better for the very-little-thinking kind of project that I wanted. I was cleaning the apartment in anticipation of houseguests, and needed something to take the edge off. There’s only so much dusting a woman can do.
I used a pattern similar to the one in Mason-Dixon Knitting, but modified a bit to form a rectangle (I say that, but it was really the best way to show off the colors of that first ball).
Using a 5.0mm (US8) needle, cast on 15 sts. Work 20 garter ridges (40 rows). * BO on RS, leaving last loop on needle. Turn clockwise (NOT back-to-front) and pick up 1 st in each garter ridge on the side of the original rectangle. Knit 6 garter ridges (12 rows). Repeat from *, picking up a st in each garter ridge of the stripe you just made, plus a stitch in the cast-on edge of the original rectangle. One skein of Kureyon will make the central rectangle and 2 rounds of strips, with about 5g left over. The block will be approximately 9 1/4″ wide by 11″ tall.
I’m making 20 blocks (I think…), and will be putting them together with 1.5″ of sashing in black yarn (Cascade Eco Wool comes to mind). The blanket should be about 45″ by 65″. Maybe I’ll make the borders deeper. As you can see, this project is still congealing.
(Does the word “congealing” gross out anyone else? It makes me think of cold icky gravy, and I don’t know why I used it to describe a knit project.)
I was inspired to rock this project by Yarnerinas‘ entry about a no-sew Noro blanket, and by Jenna of Cinemaknits, who’s been bitten by the same log cabin bug. And also by the various colors of Kureyon that I had in my stash. And also by the various colors of Kureyon that I have purchased since beginning this project. (Yeah, that Knit From Your Stash thinger? I can’t even see the wagon anymore, I fell off so hard. More on that later.)
These are my favorite blocks so far:
Colorway 40
Colorway 182
Colorway 184
Now I have a problem. I have run out of Kureyon. These blocks take like 2 hours to make, so my initial plan to knit these at a leisurely and calm pace in my usual snail-like manner is clearly not working out. I had four skeins, knit those up, bought three more, and knit those up too. I need more Kureyon. I need it. I’m running around the kniternet trying to find deals on Kureyon and there just aren’t any and I might go completely nuts if I don’t get more soon. If anyone has any random single balls of Kureyon just doing nothing at all, let me know if you want to get rid of them.
I’ve got some amazing dust bunnies I could trade.
P.S. Happy Birthday to my sister Maribeth, who joins the ranks of adults in 21+ Land!!
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get your hook on 