Tag Archives: blanket

Habitation Throw Halfway

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My Habitation Throw is over halfway now. I finally got to where it looked good enough for me and I started decreasing.This thing is really screaming through my scraps! I have gone through a good amount of my coned solid white yarn and I had to pull some bigger used skeins out of my stash as I was working the long middle sections.

My widest point is the peachy/pink section. I am now having to strategize with my remaining scraps. I want to make sure the colors look good adjacent to one another but that I will also have roughly enough to do an entire repeat of garter and eyelets. That’s just my personal brand of crazy.

I still have a ton scraps in my bag. And I’ve pulled some DEEP stash skeins of sock blanks and Joann’s sock yarn just in case I need some longer sections. This blanket has literally consumed all my knitting time. I don’t want to work on anything else right now.

Do you have a project obsession?

Can’t Stop Won’t Stop

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My favorite project right now is still my Hibernation Throw. It’s just so fun to watch the colors develop as I add new scraps. Plus it’s extra satisfying when one of these section uses up every last bit of yarn. It makes this knitters heart happy!

I’m still increasing in the pattern and since I’m heavily modifying the pattern I’m not sure when to stop. I might see how many larger sized scrap balls I have left so I can work until I have enough to get to a middle point and then have enough to account for the larger decrease sections as I work down.

I have been kind of monitoring my colors and changing every eyelet row if I haven’t already run out of yarn. This has made my color blocks uniform-ish in size and makes the fabric look intentionally scrappy. My symmetry loving brain really likes this. Though it does mean that some of scraps are used up and I still have little balls leftover.

Happy Knitting!!

Skeining Up For Hibernation

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My Hibernation Throw is continuing to grow and grow. I have almost exhausted the first skein of the Valley Yarns coned sock yarn I had previously done up.  I am holding my sock scraps double with this undyed/coned sock yarn for my blanket. So last night I dug out my cone and wound up more yarn. I still have my hand made yarn swift that my husband’s family made me. (The cone is only set on the center for photography purposes…it doesn’t function that way.) I wound off two same-ish sized skeins and tied them off with random scrap yarn.

My husband asked me why I just didn’t work from the cone. Well, this coned yarn has quite a bit of spinning grease left in it and it really plumps up when I wash it. So as not to distort my fabric of my finished blanket when I was it, I really prefer for the plumping to happen before the knitting. It’s extra time and extra steps but I really hope it prevents future heartbreak.

I tried a sample of the Pineapple Grove soak wash. The scent was fine but I didn’t really get a wiff of it on the finished yarn. But it smelled nice in my sink.

Now I just have to wait for these two skeins to dry! I called my main hall bathroom curtain rings into service to hold these skeins out of reach of grubby kid hands. Fingers crossed!

Happy Knitting!!

Darn Counting Anyway

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I am an accountant and I have the degrees and fancy certificate to prove it. But oh man, did I have a fail at counting. I have been religiously knitting away on my Hibernation Throw. And last night I looked down and swore a little. (Okay, a lot)

I had knit right past where I was supposed to add the next eyelet row. I failed to count to where I had five garter bumps. I was watching TV and the show must have really captured me because I was on auto-pilot. I do have the pattern memorized….I just lost count. I had added two extra garter bumps in my delirium.

I think I’m going to grab some smaller needles and thread in a lifeline to rip back. I just randomly grabbed US 10s when I hastily cast on this blanket. The fabric seems nice so I’m glad I made a lucky guess. But I think I’ll find some US 3s or 4s to thread in and see if I can rescue this without tinking two yarns held together.

I’m still over the moon with project because I love to see all the stripes forming AND seeing my scrap bin shrinking and shrinking. I just wish I could have remember to count, darn it!!

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Habitation Throw

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I have been seeing Helen Stewart’s Habitation Throw show up everywhere this holiday season on all the social medias and podcasts. Everyone was making them with their advent mini skeins. That didn’t really feel like what I wanted to do. But I couldn’t get this pattern out of my mind even though I have a ton of WIPs to be working on.

Finally I had a light bulb, I could hold my fingering weight scraps together with the giant cone of Valley Yarns Franklin Natural that I have. It a sock weight yarn on a cone with 6,000+ yards I had intended for my Northeasterly blanket. The Northeasterly blanket has not gone anywhere but I liked the idea of an easier marled blanket reinvigorated my blanket mojo.

Essentially this is a marled DK weight blanket. I had a little trouble getting the I-cord cast one set up but I managed and now zooming. And I’m ADDICTED, I can’t put this down and it’s all I want to knit. It’s corner to corner construction so I am just knitting until I feel it’s wide enough and then decreasing then. So I’m hacking the pattern a bit.

I’m just pulling scraps from bin and knitting until they are gone. I am also spit splicing the yarns together so I won’t have any ends to weave in. There has been some effort on my part to manage the colors. I don’t have a plan but I am trying for “planned randomness” and that the adjacent colors don’t look hideous next to one another.

Happy Knitting!!

Palette Cleanser

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My knitting mojo has hit a lull post Christmas. Don’t get me wrong, Christmas was good and my kids only saw the magic. But there was some unforeseen hospital stays (no need for alarm everyone is doing okay), so much driving and vomiting in between opening presents on Christmas morning. And I ended up doing the brunt of the Christmas prep, cooking, cleaning and running interference between all the grumpy people in my extended family.

I am just plain worn out and I’m slightly concerned my cold turned into bronchitis. So I decided to ignore all my WIPs and pull out my comfort project. My memory scrap blanket that I probably haven’t touched since this past summer. It’s just a nice palette cleanser and it felt nice and warm on my lap as I caught up on Vlogmans videos and knit happily away in garter.

Do you have a palette cleanser project?

FO Friday: Zen Yarn Garden Baby Blanket

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I’m so pleased to keep my FO train rolling! This week I finished my Zen Yarn Garden Baby Blanket!

Pattern: Zen Yarn Garden Baby Blanket by Staci Perry

Yarn: Knit Picks Brava Bulky in Solstice Heather, Cobblestone Heather and Red.

Needles: US 13s

Mods: Cast on 144 total stitches and worked extra stripe repeats. I also added fringe/tassels. My Rav notes are here.

I really wanted to use up every last inch of yarn and I had pretty decent sized balls when I bound off. So I thought…tassels! I measured and broke up my remaining yarn and added them to the points of my chevrons. This took the yardage of this blanket to 1,006 yards! I know the tassels are the most baby friendly but I can always remove them later. But for now I adore them!

I haven’t taken finished measurements yet but I have washed and dried this blanket. The above photo is taken on our king sized guest bed and it covers a good sized portion of it. Most of all, I’m just beyond thrilled to have over 1,000 yards of acrylic out of my stash and put to proper good (and washable) use!

Happy Knitting!!

One Last Stripe

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I am getting SOOOO close to the end of my Zen Yarn Garden Baby Blanket. I only have one stripe and the bind off to go!

The last stripe is blue and I have almost a full ball to do it. I will certainly have leftovers and I have a small ball of grey and tiny ball of red left as well. My brain is thinking old school tassels on each of the points of the chevrons? Maybe not the most practical for a baby but would use up the last of yarn and give this piece a vintage feel.

I guess I could always add them and take them off later? Thoughts?

Halfway Done Zen

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I feel like I need to do a little pat on my own back. I have powered through a whole metric ton of bulky weight knitting. I have reached the halfway point on my Zen Yarn Garden Chevron Baby Blanket.

I have used up just under half of the blue and grey yarn. And then I added in the middle color block of red. Instead of measuring these rows I simply knit until I ran out of red. This took just over 1.4 skeins of bulky red yarn out of my stash FOREVER….bwahahahaha.

I think the solid middle section in that pop kind of color really add to the color blocking of it all. And makes the blanket less sedate and more fun. It kind of blows out on camera but I adore it in real life.

And smart Rachelle decided to start weaving in my ends. I plugged on some episodes of The Good Place and went to town with my darning needle. I got all the loose ends woven but I’ll wait to trim them until after its washed and blocked. I only have four stripe sections left and this blanket will be done!

Happy Knitting!!

Growing Zen

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I reached the next checkpoint in my Zen Yarn Garden Baby Blanket. I finished up the stripes and got into the solid red chunk that will be in the middle. I’m feeling pretty proud considering I had knit a partial blanket that was too small, ripped that back and started again, just to get back to the point I was at when I pulled it all back.

This bright pop of red is just SOOOO much and I love it. It really livens up the neutral quality of navy and black.

The semi-bad part is that I’m now solid on red section island. No stripe changes to keep my interest, its all just knitting until I run out of red yarn. We shall see how well this goes…..