Woohoo! It’s Done!

It’s finished! I did it!

The Log Cabin Kureyon Blanket is complete and I am in LOVE! Yesterday was a perfect sunny day to take pictures, and last night was the perfect night to have a nice wool blanket. The temperature dropped to approximately BONE-CHILLINGLY COLD last night, and we had left our windows open while over at our friends’ apartment. The bedroom was freezing when we got in, but I was prepared with my brilliant 100% wool blanket. The strict-vegan husband shivered a good deal longer than I did. There may have been a Schadenfreude-ish cackle in my head as I drifted off to sleep in warm cozy comfort.

The blanket is definitely a one-person blanket, perfectly sized for me at about 68″ long (maybe shorter… I’m about 65″ to 66″ tall) and probably about 45″ wide (?) maybe? I haven’t measured it, I just know it fits.

Pattern: None. I mean, my own. I improvised on the Log Cabin pattern in Mason Dixon Knitting, and came up with this pattern. It’s down at the bottom of this page if you’re interested. (UPDATE on November 1, 2010 — pattern now available in French, courtesy of Tricomondesophie of Ravelry and of Le Tricomonde de Sophie and also available at Penelope’s Sisters)

I took the blanket to the park for a photo shoot, and it wanted to play. It played on the swings…

Inspiration: The Lizard Ridge blanket was my first inspiration, and the reason I bought the first 3 skeins. Then I saw the No-Sew Noro blanket by Yarnerinas and became totally enchanted with the idea of squares with a strong border. The squares on Cinamaknits‘ blog pushed me over the edge.

…it climbed up the curvy ladder…

Yarn: 19 skeins of Noro Kureyon in 19 different colors; 2 skeins of Cascade EcoWool (for the insanely good yardage) in dark brown (8095).

…it slid down the slide…

Needles: Many, many circulars in 5.0mm / US 8, because there are lots of stitches on those long edges.

…it steered the ship/playground…

Time Spent: Started Thursday, June 28th 2007 and finished 11:00pm Monday, October 8th 2007. I don’t have a clue how many hours I spent on it, but they were all delightful. Except maybe the brain-eating slog through the long edges on the borders, knitting 18 rows of garter stitch.

…and it beat me in tic-tac-toe, the slyboots…

Money Spent: This is not a topic I want to dwell on, but my husband and a friend were wondering how much it’s worth, with the cost of yarn plus all my time, just to see. Well, if you pay retail for 19 balls of Kureyon (which I didn’t have to, thank gourd), plus the $30 I paid at WEBS for my two skeins of EcoWool… [shudder]. Let us speak no more of it.

…and then it reposed gracefully against a stone couch.

What I Learned:

I learned that garter stitch is not boring, and is extremely cushy,

that colors other than my usual favorites can be beautiful,

that blankets can be knitted (I thought crochet was the only way to go, for the quickness factor),

that I will never get tired of smelling this yarn,

that 2400 grams of wool is damn warm,

that I could actually stick with a huge project and get it completed (I used to be intimidated by bigger projects, including sweaters),

that the kniternet is an awesome place to be when you need some extra balls of Kureyon (THANK YOU to Cathi, Heather, Kimberly, and KillerDaisy!!!),

and I learned that knitting my own blanket is a completely rewarding experience.

I’m including the pattern after the jump (if all goes well and I actually manage to create a jump). If you do decide to make it (or something like it with whatever customizations), drop me a line — I’d love to see what you make! And if you find yourself in need of an extra ball of Kureyon, I’ve got one to give away to the first person to ask for it. Colorway 194.

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Approaching Calm

Things have been a weird combination of hectic and happy here at House of HookOn (… a little alliteration never killed anyone, c’mon) lately, and I’m delighted to report that some of the uncertainty is finding its way to resolution with a bit of “Oh yes, that’s what it’s supposed to be like” thrown in. Not everything, of course, but some bits and that feels like quite a lot right now.

1. I’ve joined the Log Cabin strips all up and now it’s a big ol’ rectangle of bright shiny love.

All it needs is a border, and that’s one of the things still up in the air. I know I’m going to have to buy more Cascade EcoWool for the border in any case, but I don’t know if I want to make the border 9 garter ridges wide (1.5 times the width of the “interior” sashing) or 12 garter ridges wide (2 times the interior sashing). Anyone with an opinion is welcome to weigh in. I’d show you a picture of the border as it is now (at the 9-ridge stage), but it’s all scrunched up on a 24″ circular and you wouldn’t be able to see what it was anyway.

2. Speaking of pictures…

I GOT MY CAMERA BACK!!! In fact, it’s better than my camera (perhaps you remember its vampire-like tendencies?) it’s a replacement camera. It takes great pictures! Without lines! Holy damn hell, people, I am so excited about this. I can return my friend’s camera…

… and rekindle my love affair — after 7 weeks apart — with my sweet sweet camera. BUT UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL THERE BE WINE. And because there must be balance in the universe, this is the kind of light I have on the day I get my camera back…

Dammit.

3. I’ve had this weird rash on my torso for a bit and was trying to treat it myself using old prescriptions (DO NOT DO THIS, IT’S QUITE STUPID) and it wasn’t really going away. This morning I made a list of all the things in my life that were a bit different (a new detergent, higher-than-usual stress levels, excessive hugging of woolly blankets-in-progress) and went off to the doctor. Turns out I have this, it’s a virus that just shows up for unexplained reasons, and there’s nothing that can be done about it. (Nothing. That kind of boggles my mind.) It’s not communicable, it’s not going to cause bits to fall off, and it’s not going to go away for another 6 weeks, probably. AWESOME.

On the plus side, it’s good to know what it is so I can just quit freaking out. It’s also good to know its other symptoms (headache, fatigue, nausea) because for a week or so there I thought I was pregnant. So now I can just quit freaking out. (Edit: Because I’m NOT.)

(I’m not going to show pictures of the rash. Sorry to disappoint.)

4. I finished shopping for my vegan secret pal this morning and I’m going to get the package out tomorrow or the next day, so I can cross that off my list. Not that it was onerous or anything — I had a really fun time learning about her through her blog, and it was fun to shop for someone whose preferences in color and scents were so different from mine. The swap also involves sending vegan recipes, so I am putting in two of my favorites that are the most approachable — meaning, there’s no tofu and all the ingredients can be found in your local grocery store. That was the biggest put-off for me when I first went vegan — the one cookbook I could find (The Voluptuous Vegan, which I can appreciate now) was so full of strange ingredients and complicated preparation that I think I panicked and ate boxed rice for 18 months as a result.

…..

So yes, things are … if not slowing down, at least bringing it down to a 2. I’m getting there.

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Something to Show

Finally, I have got my hands on a camera! (Not mine, of course, but a loan from a friend. Thanks Beth!)

The state of the log cabin blanket

The blocks are all put together in four strips of five blocks, with Cascade Eco Wool (color 8095) doing the sashing between. The sashing is the same width/depth/whatever as the strips of the Noro blocks — 12 rows or 6 garter ridges.

This is the first time I’ve worked with Kureyon, and after seeing Renee’s post about the growth factor of this yarn, I’m wondering if I should have blocked my blocks (HA!) before joining them. That’s a theoretical wondering at this point, of course, because I’m not about to undo all that Eco Wool.

This is the sashing all close up, from the wrong side. I’m knitting 3 ridges/6 rows on one block, then pick up and knit 3 ridges/6 rows on the other block, then 3-needle-bind-off them together.

I’m doing the same thing on the long sides of the strips, and this is the part where things have slowed down just a bit. It’s the devil to do work a 3-needle-bindoff down a billion stitches (or thereabouts), and I find myself putting it down a lot. I just need to watch a good long movie that I’ve already seen… Lord of the Rings trilogy, perhaps. Anyone with suggestions please let me know!

I love every detail of this project, even though I thought I hated garter stitch. I don’t know what I was thinking — it’s beautiful and cushy and the stitches ripple around each other, and it kind of looks like a hug. A little bit. To me. The crazy lady.

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Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty!

Twenty Kureyon blocks! Ah ah ah!

I know it’s Friday, but better a late WIP Wednesday than never right? Right.

Kureyon 207, purchased at Stitches Midwest 2007, the 18th block

Kureyon 126, from KillerDaisy (on Ravelry) (THANK YOU!), the 19th block

Kureyon Mishmash, from previous block leftovers. The 20th and final block!

Woohoo! They’re done! I acutally finished the last one a week ago, but with the surreptitious camera-borrowing I am reduced to posting ultra late. I hope my own camera returns to me soon because good lord, blogging is hard when you don’t have a digital camera.

Anyway. Not the point. The point is: all my blocks for this afghan are done, and now I just need to knit them together (note for purists: this is already happening, but I don’t like to talk about it because I can’t show you pictures, but hey I just did. Dammit.). Cascade Eco Wool colorway 8095 is my chosen medium for that part of the process, because the yardage is so fantastic for the price. Fun fact: on the Cascade website the colorway 8095 looks black, but when you get it home it’s actually a superdark brown. It’s fine for my purposes, but just FYI.

This project has had the best timing its whole life. I started the first block when I needed something to take a break from the bastardy of cleaning, and I’m putting everything together just as the weather is starting to turn a little cooler. The days are clear and sunny and 70s (F), temperatures are getting into the 50s (F) here at night, and I’m beginning to think of stews and cider and being curled up in a lovely colorful blanket at night. Mmmmm.

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Nearing the End

Like a hot knife through butter, I move through the pile of Kureyon.

Kureyon 180, the 14th block

Like grass in the wind, it bends to my will.

Kureyon 170, the 15th block

The colors dance under my hands. Like puppets.

Kureyon 154, the 16th block

Kureyon, you fascinate me even as I devour you.

Kureyon 215, the 17th block

(I bought all these colors at Stitches Midwest this year.)

I don’t think I’ve ever been this continuously excited about one project. I’ve never been this driven to keep knitting on a project, to actually rush to the finish to see how it turns out when it’s all done, and to do it without any boredom! This is awesome! Knitting log cabin squares is the very best knitterly thing ever, in my distracted opinion. I think I’m going to have my students make some of these when my classes start up again.

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WIP … Thursday?

I was going to post this yesterday, but I got distracted.

Nick left last night for a four-day trip away with guys, and I took advantage of his absence by scattering my knitting all over the living room. I may have left a project in the bathroom… I’m not sure. I love having the apartment to myself, because I can let my inner Completely Insane Knitter out. Tonight I plan to pull the entire stash out of its dresser and just roll around in it.

Anyway, I have knitting to report. I’ve been absolutely flying through the Kureyon lately…

Kureyon 3, from Kimberly of SomeBunnysLove. The 11th block.

Kureyon unknkown, also from Kimberly. The 12th block.

Kureyon 78, also from Kimberly. The 13th block.

And I finished the 14th block last night, and cast on for the 15th.

I am so excited about this project. While I was hanging out with Femiknitter this weekend (and I promise I’ll do a proper recap soon!), we talked about this project and I gushed on and on about how easy it is and how huge the payoff is (or will be) for not a lot of work. Why is this project so much more appealing than a sweater or socks right now? It’s blocks (small and portable); it’s different colors (exciting and not repetitious in that way); the pattern is simple (mindless for movie watching, easily memorized); and I’m getting a blanket out of it. It’s perfect for my flighty-knitterly ways — I can feel a huge sense of accomplishment after only 2 hours of knitting and move on to the next skein of yarn, but still be working on the same project. I hope my huge enthusiasm for this project won’t be sucked away by the piecing-together time. I’m going to knit everything together, not sew it, so that should help.

To force myself to be more of a knitter and less of a person who sits around reading knit blogs and thinking about knitting, I’m introducing a new feature: the WIP Wednesday. Even if it’s on a Thursday. Once a week I have to show off what I’m doing, and hopefully this will make me have something to show off. Motivating via shame. It’s a time-honored tradition.

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Now with 500% Stronger Hands!

Last week sometime, or perhaps before that (I don’t really know, and I shall blame this not-knowing on the heat and humidity we’ve been having), Femiknitter and I formed a pact to make sure we finished up some stalled projects. Because she’s coming into Chicago this Saturday (!!!) and we’re going to Stitches Midwest together, we decided to force ourselves to finish whatever projects seemed challenging by this coming Friday night (the 10th). If we do that, we get a bonus on our Stitches budget (if my budget is X, finishing my project(s) earns me X+50) (my budget is looking freakishly algebraic).

After being intimidated by my headband for far too long, I finished it in about 90 minutes. And after puttering around on my warshrag for, again, far too long, I finished that in a day. (Read the specs) (It’s amazing the amount of knitting that gets done when you actually knit, instead of whingeing about it not being done.) And those were my Stitches goals. Those were the projects that were supposed to earn me another fifty dollars. These two projects that took two days total to complete. I didn’t feel like I earned anything.

So I set myself another goal: Knit four more washrags by Friday, August 10th.

And I did.

I finished the black&white one last night

I worked almost exclusively on these 100% cotton washcloths, and now my hands are insisting that I be done with them for a while. Nick’s been rubbing my hands for me after each evening’s knitting for the past week or so (huzzah!), but they’re still a little sore. Strong, though. I feel like I could crimp like a champ at this point. But I won’t.

In between working on the headband and the cotton, I finished block #10 of the (mercifully wooly and elastic) Noro Kureyon log cabin blanket.

Kureyon 157, a pretty dark picture… sorry!

And I’m working on the eleventh

Kureyon 3, from Kimberly

I think I can finish it by Friday. Bonus!

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In Martian Years I’m 14 Again

Have you ever wondered how old you’d be on another planet? (It would be different than on earth, because of science.) Who hasn’t? Through the power of the internets, you can find out your age on other planets. It’s a great way to start your work week. By not doing some work.

This link is posted in honor of someone (who may or may not be a friend, a knitter, and/or a blogger) whose birthday may or may not be today or near today. I may be making this person up.

And despite the vast amounts of time I have spent on Ravelry in the past … um, 6 days, I have actually managed to knit something. Nothing very exciting, of course, but it’s something and I knit it.

Kureyon 183, a gift from CathiPink

Kureyon 128, from Heather

Alright then, two somethings. These two blocks bring the total to nine, and I’m working on the tenth — I’m halfway there!

Now I’m off to stalk the Ravelry ISO board for more Kureyon.

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What I did on my summer vacation

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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