Stitching Saturday: The new blanket, finished

In keeping with my usual mode of doing things, I finished my knitted chevron blanket in record time, and moved on so quickly that I didn't bother updating you here.

So I thought I'd walk you through the end of my project after the fact! :) Up above you see what all the ends looked like when I was finished knitting...



This photo was slightly more picturesque, but you get the idea, TONS of ends to weave in. It wasn't so bad - I worked steadily at it for a full evening in front of the TV, and I was done.

So here's the finished blanket!



As you can see, the edges curl in a little. If I was feeling obsessive, I'd have blocked it. I decided to wait for my first wash, after which I'll block it, and see how much the size changes.

Overall, I was very happy with this free pattern and the colors I chose - I think the chevrons look tidier than some patterns I have seen, and once I memorized the pattern, it was a breeze to stitch. I will say, however, that if you make a mistake, it seems next to impossible to go back and fix it. So, I'd suggest good concentration and precision for this one.

My finished size was 20 in wide, 42 in long. I knit this using size 8 circular needles and remnants of Love This Yarn from my Log Cabin project.

Stitching Saturday: New blanket time

So I guess it's just not possible for me to NOT have a blanket in my ready knitting rotation. It's so comforting to lay a half-knit blanket on your lap and feel purposeful while watching way too much Hulu. :)

Up above is my newest blanket - from a free pattern by Espace Tricot here. I've been wanting to do another chevron blanket, ever since my chevron baby blanket last year. This was just a bit harder, but not at all a problem after all the weekly knit stitches I've been practicing. I am winging it with the colors and stripes - I dug through my remnants from the Log cabin blanket and chose some nice bright shades I liked together, and stuck with the first 5 I knitted up.

I  spent most of my Memorial day holiday knitting this up while it rained cats and dogs outside:






Yup, that was all done in one day.  I do wish I'd knitted this a bit wider, but it'll be a nice throw to have on hand, not too heavy or too large.

Here's the progress I made this week, while watching a fair amount of Hulu as it continues to rain here...



And what am I watching while I knit, you may ask? Oh, I know you didn't ask, but whatever, I'll tell you anyway.

Oh my God, Korean Drama. It took me awhile to get into it - I watched my first Kdrama about 3 years ago after Netflix suggested it to me - Boys Over Flowers - and I was amused, but still pretty "meh" about it. I tried another drama after that, also suggested by Netflix - My Princess, and I was just annoyed by it.

Fast-forward 3 years later when in a bored moment I take another Netflix suggestion- Fated To Love You:

That show is like crack, I tell you. Go ahead and judge me. I judge me. It is predictable, silly, weird, but somehow still moving and emotional. The thing about Kdrama is that for all that you're laughing at it and mocking it, there come these odd moments when you realize you're in love with it, and then there's no going back.

After that, I moved onto Coffee Prince, and I was permanently hooked. Coffee Prince is still my favorite in terms of music and a sense of "reality" that you don't quite get in the other shows (but that's not necessarily a bad thing). Mostly I am fascinated with the language, the culture, and comparing and contrasting the ideals in these shows, and what I've experienced in American (and Mexican-American) culture. I am always a sucker for language and culture.

It's also bizarre to me that every person I expose these shows to also gets permanently hooked. South Korea, what are you putting in your shows? We can't stop watching them!



Then, I watched the Korean film Sunny, and was in love with all the characters and wacky events. It helped of course that there was the 80's music I grew up on, and bad perms, girl gangs, and sweatshirts. But I have to say I was taken aback at how incredibly badass these tiny girls are. I thought my own Mexican-American peeps cornered the market on girl gang badass-ery. But no. It appears we have to share. The bizarrely hilarious fight scene with the girls and the riot police is my favorite action sequence, ever.

So, for now, I'm knitting my way through all the Korean shows I find. Anyone else out there discovered/ been hooked on Kdrama? :)

Stitching Saturday: Finally finished

Remember that Log Cabin blanket I started, almost 2 years ago? Well, I finally finished it and gave it to my niece as a graduation present. I decided to give this to her because it was one of the projects that was blessed at the knitting retreat I went to last year. Thinking of the group of wonderful women praying over my quilt, embuing it with all their good wishes and hopeful thoughts, made me know it was the perfect gift to send her into the world with.

As it grew, I of course had to upgrade to longer circular needles - my 60 inch Addi Turbos comfortably held the last rows of this blanket, and they are really a dream to stitch with. Super light and turbo fast, just like they promise. :) There were SO MANY ENDS to weave in - and that took up a few evenings in front of the TV.



After my last update more than one year ago (above) it grew about 10 inches on each side. The last strips got longer and longer, eventually eating up grapefruit-sized balls of yarn for each strip! Something to keep in mind if you create a blanket like this that just keeps going and going.

This was all knit up with acrylic Love This Yarn, which was soft and wonderful, and all purchased at Hobby Lobby before their decision to dictate which types of birth control their female employees could have. I was so ticked off I haven't set foot in a Hobby Lobby store since. I still have quite a bit of Love This Yarn, but aside from using it up, I won't be replenishing my stash.

I have to say, I loved making this blanket - the bright colors brought me a lot of joy, and it was a hit everywhere I went. People seemed genuinely enamored with the colors and the design, and it was the perfect project to mindlessly knit when I needed to feel calm and grounded.

Amusingly enough, I even made it in the paper last year when I took my knitting to Shakespeare in the Park. Hilarious! :)

Knitting inspiration - quest for a blanket

I haven't been writing, but I have been knitting A LOT this past month. I went through many successive phases in my quest for a new knitting project, truth be told.

After washing my acrylic Vanna's Choice Dr. Who scarf, it became so dreamy soft that the whole unpleasant process was washed away in my mind. Knitting up a whole new scarf in wools just because I hated the acrylic seemed silly, and I just felt done with my Dr. Who knitting phase. :)

My new quest: Use my favorite cheap yarn - Love This Yarn - in a soft, squishy blanket. I vowed (sort of) I would not buy new yarn (if I could help it). :)

1. Chevron Blanket
First I fell in love with chevron blankets, like this gorgeous one by Purl Soho:


Purl Soho blanket pattern

But when I used Love This Yarn in this pattern I didn't love it so much. It wasn't very soft and fluffy in this texture. Thinking I'd done something wrong, I knit it up on larger needles, which helped somewhat, but the texture was still not as bouncy and fluffy as Garter stitch...


2. Missoni Inspired Chevron Blanket

Next, I found this gorgeous blanket pattern by Tangled Yarns:

Missoni Inspired Chevron Blanket pattern

I LOVED the gorgeous color variations and bold changes. I loved that it was striped. I loved that it was chevron. The crazy part of me loved that it was huge, and more complex than any knitting pattern I'd ever tried.

And I loved the beautiful variations on Ravelry like this version by POF:

POF's Missoni inspired chevron blanket on Ravelry

These colors make my heart sing. I love what she did with them. And of course the little girl is adorable, too.

The original pattern calls for the following colors, in Biggan Yarn:


I decided to try my own version in Love This Yarn - my colors would not be exact, but close. Using size 8 needles I cast on 241 stitches. 241 stitches! I quickly realized this pattern was too ambitious for my short-attention-span knitting. I practiced again and again - at one point I messed up my increases so my blanket began to hilariously shrink on one side. :) Also, it is stockinette, which means purling 241 stitches. Eek. But it was good practice purling, and I found a way to cope with it, although I started out with very sore hands.

Finally, I found peace with the whole process and knit my way up the first 3 color changes. And realized it was again, not as soft as I was questing for. Love This Yarn didn't feel or look very soft in Stockinette - and Stockinette brings out its Acrylic-y sheen. SO, another blanket experiment was unceremoniously unraveled. Sigh. No fault of the pattern, which is gorgeous!


3. Honeycomb Stroller Blanket

Next, I fell in love with a Honeycomb blanket. The original free pattern is rather plain, but people have done gorgeous things with it on Ravelry.

One of my favorites is this version by Duschinka:

Duschinka's Honeycomb Stroller Blanket on Ravelry

Best of all, this pattern is EASY. Like, incredibly easy. So I cast on 164 stitches and got to work with Love This Yarn. But guess what? The finished texture, and combination of Garter and Stockinette? Not the softness I crave. But I'm gonna finish the dang thing, anyway. And it's pretty - I'll have pictures soon. :)


4. Log Cabin Knitted Blanket

Last in my quest for a blanket pattern I found Log Cabin knitting. There are so many great tutorials out there, but the one that helped me most was this free pattern by Staci Perry. The pattern has links to video tutorials, and she walks you through every step in very clear and detailed way.

I fell in love with this Log Cabin blanket on Cozy Things:


The color placement may seem random, but my gut tells me that she has a very artistic way of creating color harmony -her sense of color is just wonderful. I'm aiming for something maybe half this size. I started up with the remainder of Love This Yarn in my stash, and it is finally, just as soft and squishy and happy as I hoped for. All of this research has made me promise myself to only knit Love This Yarn in garter stitch, ever. Pictures soon!

Stitching Saturday: knitting catch-up

I've been knitting pretty steadily lately, even though I haven't been updating you - so here's a catch-up post with accompanying crappy indoor photos. :) Up above you see my baby blanket progress - I've knit at least 12 squares over the past week - I find each square takes me about 30 minutes, start to finish.

Those 5 colors along the bottom I am least sure about - so you see I am dawdling about knitting those up. One of the most frustrating things about putting together colors is the way they change in different light - one combination looks great in the daytime - but not so hot at night, and vice versa.

I might just stick with some variation of only these 4 colors...


Next up is my mom and I's wonky patchwork quilt - as you can see it almost covers the top of my full size bed, so I guess it's small-throw size:


It looks a bit crazy in my room, but it's actually nice and cozy looking when it sits on the living room couch...


Finally, here's the Watson scarf - hooray, I finished!


Not so hooray - look at all those little white yarn ends to weave in - ugh. The blue and brown were time-consuming enough but the white ends are extra hard to weave in - no matter how I do it, it looks wonky and I get really cranky.

Other thing making me cranky - how my bind-off edge (left) looks so much wider than the edge I started the scarf on (right):


ARGH! OH well. If anyone has any end-weaving-in advice it would be much appreciated.

On tap for my knitting mayhem was season 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer- which started off slow and a bit dull and repetitive, but ended with a real punch to the gut. The show where Buffy's mom dies? Incredibly well-done, and terribly depressing! And the last episode, where Buffy dies? I'm always surprised at how many really good episodes are hidden in there. I've also been watching Vampire Diaries, season 2, but not with as much relish. It's an ok show, but it's a lot mopier and soap-opera-ish. There's a whole lot more angst and less plot advancement. I finished season 3 of Veronica Mars, and although the last season was the least interesting, I still felt sad to see all the familiar characters go without any resolution. Not a huge fan of the Veronica-starts-the-FBI pilot, but the show as a whole had a lot of potential. Okay, I admit I feel dumb coming clean about my teen-show tv watching, but there's a reason - I'm working on a teen novel. Really - it's research! :)

What have you guys been up to? :)

Stitching Saturday: knit knit knit

I am woefully behind in my posting this week - I think I've been knitting and crafting so much that I can't do all that, photograph, upload, and blog at the same time. Erg - sorry!

Anyway, up above are nine colors of Love This Yarn that I'm using to make a baby quilt - maybe - this quilt?

Yeah, you know it, I totally fell in love with this baby - I mean - look at those sweet eyes! The pattern suggests nine Lion Brand colors, but I subbed Love This Yarn instead.

You know? It's REALLY HARD to find nine colors that look good together. I just assumed I'd march in there and buy the first 9 pastel shades I came across, but it wasn't that easy. I'm still not 100% sure all nine colors I chose will make it into 1 quilt.

Here I am with my cell phone camera, trying to piece together a decent color combo at lunch:


The pattern neatly blocks out where each color will go, but I wanted to play with placement anyway.

I made another monster, but since I haven't uploaded the most recent pics, you'll just have to see her half-finished:


I knitted up the little arms (also in pink) and found myself giggling at how, um, unintentionally phallic they are. You'll see when I show you the finished product. ;)

I used Love This Yarn for this monster as well - I have to say I prefer the texture it has on garter stitch than stockinette:


It's just a cheap acrylic, but it's really plush and soft when worked in garter stitch.

And lastly, here's a wonky patchwork blanket I started last year and am continuing with my mom:


She's already knitted up a huge pile of blocks to practice her knitting - so I'll add those soon and update you. I like that it's imperfect, and that it's something we're making together. I can be such a crazy perfectionist that I sometimes feel paralyzed by my own excessive standards for myself. I am very, very hard on myself - so I like to give myself a break and say "This one can be wonky, as long as you finish it, and it makes you happy." How about you guys? Any recovering perfectionists out there? :)

Hope you had a good weekend, and are enjoying the end of summer and the first hints of fall...