Friday, February 1, 2013

A New Beginning...& an Ending...

OK so this post's title is going a bit far. Yesterday I decided to make another baby blanket (yes I do make stuff besides hats & scarves---admittedly not much, but I digress) but I decided I wanted to try something new--Circular knitting needles! (If you don't know what that is, Google it, I'll wait)

For the baby blankets I've made in the past, I followed a very simple pattern: Cast on 80 stitches using a size 16 needle, knit 7 rows, then transfer to size 6 needles & knit 7 rows, repeating until reaching desired size (AKA until I ran out of yarn), Cast off from the larger set of needles.

This lovely ribbed effect  on this 28" x 33" blankie/throw the result:


I made this ^ (and the 2 before it) on long, straight needles, and it took forever! Plus the needles were very full &  hard to work with, taking me about 20 mins or so to finish a row, to say nothing of how heavy the thing was. After 3 days of working on each one, my hands were feeling the pain, so I looked up some internet videos & decided to finally put the circular needles that I have to good use! However, since I can't do anything simply, I decided to try my 1st project on circular needles with a double strand of yarn, as seen here:
I started working on this around 5pm, ripped it back after the 1st couple of rows because I got the yarn all tangled up. For the 1st 7 rows on size 11 needles, I was thinking WOW this is so easy!! 

Then I had to transfer the work onto these lil bitty circular needles I have (no number on them.) I did about 3 rows and this was the most tedious thing I have ever done. I definitely started to get the hang of it, but I don't really think I'll be finishing this particular project for a while. This is what it looks like right now (and probably for the foreseeable future LOL):


I only included the yarn balls in the pic so you could see how much work I have left.

So the "ending" I mentioned in the post title is because today I started (and finished) a lovely commissioned piece for a friend & colleague of mine at the med skool:



It measures about 2" x 66" and is composed of a triple thread (Royal Purple Velvet Chenille, Amethyst Chenille & Black Eyelash).

I am posting the scarf on etsy as a "made to order" item, but the finished blankie/throw can be all yours if you follow this link!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/122413041/pastel-green-blue-white-ribbed-baby

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