Category Archives: blanket

Planning My Next Blanket

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After my less than spectacular finish on my Marled Crochet Blanket I wanted to get right back on the horse and continue crocheting and stash busting. It has been soooo satisfying to empty bags of yarn and whole drawers of my stash really really quickly.

I pulled the seven skeins of full or almost full skeins of Knit Picks Biggo leftover from when I was making headband for craft fairs like six years ago. I like that it is all the same yarn content and the colors aren’t horrible together. Plus this yarn has a really soft hand and is easy care.

I laid them out on my guest bed and played with color progression ideas for a simple crocheted rectangle of a blanket. After a few attempts I think this is the winner. I don’t want to weave in a ton of ends, but I might use the grey and black as some sort of border treatment? And then the body would be all the jewel tones? I’m going to percolate on this project for a bit.

Happy Crocheting!!

A Rainbow Border

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I am still completely committed to my Crochet Rainbow blanket. I finished all the rainbow colors and then went ahead with adding white “book end” sections on either side.

I have roughly two skeins of the white yarn so now I’m working a border around the entire blanket. My edge crochet stitches could use some improvement and therefore my pickups are kind of dicey. But its good enough for me and I can’t wait to have this finished thing!

Rainbows are just making me so happy right now. Happy Friday and happy knitting!!

Obsessively Rainbow

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Sorry, not sorry! My Crochet Rainbow is hurtling along at light speed and I’m obsessed and super happy.

I am now into the teal ball of yarn with only dark blue and purple left to add to the main body of the blanket. Then I will take my off white yarn and do a crocheted border around the outside. Depending on the finished dimensions of the rainbow I made add more edge rows on the ends than I do the sides to make a decent rectangle.

Or I may say screw it, its 2020 and just crochet around and make whatever shape it turns out to be. It will probably depend on my mood, lol

Happy Crocheting!

Growing A Rainbow

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My current obsession is this amazing crocheted rainbow. It’s all I want to work on. Literally. I haven’t picked up my Radiate or any of my other knitting projects in days.

After factoring in dishes, bedtime and laundry I can crochet about one full ball of bulky yarn a night. I did have a bit of a false start with the yellow. I knit the whole section and realized I had lost an edge stitch or two and my blanket was veering inward. So I ripped back and I’m starting over.

I am learning a lot about better placement of my crochet hook. I made some mistakes in the pink section but I’m improving a whole lot in the red and yellow. It’s perfectly imperfect and I think a great metaphor for the dumpster fire that is 2020. It feels really good to have mojo about something again. My brain feels excited and engaged and I could use a little more of that.

What has gotten your motor running lately?

Knitting Poolside

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We are in the middle of a long heat wave in the Midwest right along side big increases in COVID cases. So my family and I are doing our best to find ways to have fun and stay safe at home. This week’s adventure had water balloons, lots of driveway swimming pool time and me knitting in the shade.

Modified version of Helen Stewart’s Habitation Throw

This photo was taken 10 minutes before I dropped a stitch and made a huge hole in my Rainbow Habitation Throw. I literally spent the next hour tinking back two and a half rows to fix my mistake because it just wouldn’t ladder back down and back up again correctly. So that means I’m still in my fourth color of twelve.

But the good thing about knitting garter stitch is that you can just knit and knit and eventually you look down and a blanket has popped out of nowhere!

P.S. I completely see the irony of knitting a lap blanket during a heat wave. I’m a special kind of crazy!

Happy Knitting!!

Sunlight and Knitting

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I took advantage of my parent’s deck to take some beauty shots of my Rainbow Fluff Habitation Throw. I couldn’t get over how beautiful the sunlight looked shining through the fabric.

This is a modified Habitation Throw by Helen Stewart. I’m omitting the eyelets and adding a fluffy alpaca stripe in between each color change. I’m just starting the fourth color of the gradient. I have 12 colors total so I’ll work the increasing section for the first six colors and then decrease for the last six.

This has been a nice lighweight knit to keep in my lap while it’s hot. It’s also soothing garter stitch with a little interest at the edges. So it is balm for my troubled mind and spirit. I haven even started weaving in my ends so I don’t leave them all to the end. You are welcome future Rachelle!

Happy Knitting!!

Habitation Obsession

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I’m really starting to pick up steam on my second Hibernation Throw with my Teal Torch Knits 2019 Christmas advent yarn.

I’m omitting the eyelet rows in the pattern and it’s going to be solid garter stitch. And I’ve put some suri alpaca lace weight held double in white in between each color to create some visual interest and to make my blanket just a smidge bigger.

I blew through the first two colors really quickly but now I’m slowing down a bit on the third as the rows get longer. This is my meditation/no extra brain space knitting right now. The color keeps me interested but I don’t have to think about anything but maintaining the garter edge.

Can You Say Ambition?

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I took my kiddos to my parents house for a weekend respite. I may have over packed my knitting….

I pulled out my huge 31 tote and piled in the WIPs. It was hot as hades but I pulled a nice ice cold coca cola and worked on some of my projects. In this bag I had my:

One Perfect Skein Shawl

Rainbow Fluff Habitation Throw

PB’s Birthday Blanket

Retro Rainbow Vanilla Socks

I managed to put a little work on each of them and it was a very zen knitting session. It was a nice recharge to the dumpster fire that is 2020. I kind of like my big ole bag of WIPs. I’m choosing to see them as a big pile of untapped potential. Maybe it is too much ambition? But I’m excited to see what happens.

Happy Knitting!!

A Blanket Itch

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I have been using my DK Habitation Throw in the evenings a lot. I made it from scraps earlier this year and it was so fun. I have been fighting the itch to cast on another one. I finally tipped over the edge when I found my Teal Torch Knits minis from last Christmas’ advent calendar.

They came in a full spectrum rainbow in 12 minis, so I used my swift and ball winder to wind them into two equal cakes of six colors. I used a loose knot to connect the colors but I will russian join them when I get to the actual knitting. I also spied some leftover Suri Alpaca that I might work into the blanket. I’m considering using it a separation between the rainbow colors OR holding it double with the sock yarn on just the eyelet rows to provide some visual interest. I have some thinking to do on that one.

This project is living in my Cherry Pie Cottage project bag that is the most perfect summer theme of mermaids and ocean creatures. Probably going to be as close as I get to the beach this year!

Happy Knitting!!

FO Friday: DK Hibernation Throw

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Spring is around the corner and I have a finished Hibernation Throw! Seems appropriate to be “coming out of hibernation” from winter and to have finished this project.

Pattern: Habitation Throw by Helen Stewart

Needles: US 10s

Yarn: Valley Yarns Franklin Natural coned sock yarn and all the fingering weight scraps from my stash

Mods: I modified this pattern for DK weight yarn (fingering held double) to make a scrappy marled version of this blanket.

This project just ticked all the boxes for me and I’m almost tempted to cast on another one! It was very to memorize and easy to read where I was when I put it down mid repeat. It used up a TON of scraps from my stash. When I weighed this behemoth it weighed 822 grams. Based on some maths I did based on the average sock yarn statistics….this blanket used rough 3,300 yards of yarn!

And I finished this in about a month and a half. That is lighting speed for me and a blanket. But I will fully admit that this became a knitting obsession and I didn’t really work on much else for that period. I did notice that when I was taking FO photos that my blanket is not perfectly square. I found that at multiple times I had to fudge my decreases on the last half because I didn’t have the right number of stitches. I’m pretty confident that this led to the last half being slightly bigger than the first half.

But I don’t care, I have a new snuggly blanket that is 100% mommy’s and no one else can use it without permission! Happy Knitting!!