Oh, goodness. So much for semi-regular knit blogging. But I suppose that would require some regular knitting.
Last year was fairly light on the knitting front. I can’t even blame the great Carpet Beetle Invasion of 2013, although that was certainly part of it (you can’t knit yarn while it’s in the freezer, after all). I just… wasn’t feeling it, for the most part.
But! Now I’m back in the swing of things. I do plan to go back and post my older FOs at some point, but let’s start with my latest two!
I may have been a little overambitious with this one, but… go big or go home, right?
Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton-Ease in Vanilla, Turquoise, and Cherry
Needles: US4 / 3.5mm Hiya Hiya bamboo interchangeable circulars
Yes, that is an attempt at a Captain America Shield blanket! My first knit blanket ever, actually. I was originally intending for it to be a baby blanket, but made some errors when attempting to scale up my prototype. That, combined with the weight of that much cotton/acrylic yarn, meant I ended up knitting a 55” diameter blanket. Ah well. In my head I’m calling it a belated wedding gift to the couple instead, makes me feel a little better about the sizing.
It’s certainly the largest project I’ve ever knit, dimensions-wise, and it’s tied with the Forest Path Stole for most time-consuming. But hey, at least when I eventually decide to knit my own, I don’t really have to recalculate anything and can use my notes mostly as is!
I’m pretty happy with this blanket overall. It’s not perfect – I don’t love how I did the increases, that’s something else that didn’t scale up well from my prototype. It ended up a bit more angular than I would have liked. So I’ll have to do that a bit differently, the next time I feel like knitting a large round blanket.
On another technique note, I attempted no-purl garter stitch in the round. I didn’t want a curling stockinette blanket, and I didn’t want to purl that many stitches, so… had to figure out something else. I’m pretty happy with how it looks; while the jog is still visible to me, it’s still way less noticeable than some other methods I’ve tried for garter stitch in the round. I’m not happy with the sheer amount of ends it meant I had to weave in, though.
I knit one other project for these friends. Well, for their adorable baby, rather. And this one actually is baby-sized!
Pattern: Minion Hat by Maura Houston
Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton-Ease in Banana Cream, Licorice, Vanilla, and Stone
Needles: US2 / 2.75mm and US4 / 3.5mm Hiya Hiya bamboo interchangeables, US4 / 3.5mm and US5 / 3.75 Plymouth bamboo DPNs
I don’t have as much to say about it from a knitting/finishing standpoint, since it was so quick and easy. The eyes are slightly crooked because I made the rookie mistake of not actually pinning them in place before I sewed them on, and I also think I should have sewn them on a little closer together, but other than that I’m pretty happy with it.
These were by far the best received gifts I’ve ever knit (not that I’ve made all that many), and the blanket in particular was a good challenge, so yay, I win!
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