FFO=Finally Finished Object

I have been working on this blanket for a looong time. I'm so glad it's done. It was an exercise in using what I had to practice a technique--this time it was log cabin knitting--to make something useful. In this case, I used some of the vintage acrylics, which I'd carefully matched up based on color family, to make a squishy, washable dog blankie. As you can tell, Stella thinks very highly of the blankie, and is going to be sad when it's gone.



Pattern: Log Cabin blanket from Mason-Dixon Knitting

Yarn: Vintage acrylic from long-ago ebay purchase. These yarns were obviously your standard 70s acrylics, but they varied in scratchiness from really awful to work with (the light brown and the dark brown especially) to rather soft (the variegated). Most of them came without ball bands, so I have no idea of the actual brands, but trust me, I wouldn't use this yarn for anything besides pet blankets or the occasional toy for a drooling baby. It would be extremely harsh against the skin.

Needles: Size 8, Boye Interchangeables

Modifications: Um, I'm pretty sure that I wasn't doing the log cabin-ing the way that Ann and Kay say to do it in the book, but since the project was just practice, and for dogs, I didn't think it would matter. The overall result is the same. The other thing that happened is that all the sides are different lengths. One side, I bound off too tightly, and it does pucker the blanket a bit. That's a little disappointing, but I guess it doesn't matter too much if it will be keeping some shelter dog warm. Finally, I used my nascent crochet skills to add a shell-stitch border around the edge of the blanket. Just to finish it off and give it a more polished edge.

I'm just glad it's done. I have purple and pink yarn set aside to do another one, but I can't stomach it right now. I think I may just crochet that one into a granny square afghan or ripple stitch blanket for the dogs rather than knitting the whole thing. And it isn't going to be until next fall, when Project Spectrum knitting is done. My plate is full, starting Feb 1!



My current WIP, which I think I'll also be glad to put down when February starts, is the turtleneck shrug. I really really want to wear this, but I'm not enjoying the knitting of it all that much. It's basically two ribbed tubes connected with the turtleneck part, so you have to finish 23" of sleeve TWICE before you get to knit the middle. And I'm only about 7" in! It's going to take forever!!! Ah well. The other thing I'm worried about is that the cuff seems really big right now. I decided not to buy the Rowan Kid Classic that it called for, because I'm just not sure how much use I'm going to get out of this garment, and 4 balls of RKC would be $44.00 at my LYS, so I went for the easy care Plymouth Encore, which may be another reason that I'm not loving it so much. The color is really pretty, but it's not as soft as the RKC. So back to the cuff. Basically, there is no shaping in the sleeve, so the width at the cuff is the width that it is also going to be around my fat bicep, so I'm sure once the whole sleeve is done, the effect will be quite different. Right now, it just seems like it's going to have gapping cuffs. I don't know. I'm hoping I will have at least one sleeve done before I put it up in Feb.

You can probably also tell from that last picture, taken on my desk at work, that I've got a trip coming up! YIPPEE. Spanky and I are going to be touring the Land Down Under starting in Mid-Feb. Three weeks of just enjoying ourselves instead of worrying about my authors or the publication schedule of the books or the companion websites or my assistant or ANYTHING. I feel like I've earned the break, dammit. I've not taken a real vacation the whole time I've been there (going on 8 yrs now). I haven't quite figured out what to pack in terms of knitting yet, but I think part of the plane knitting will be socks, and part of the travel knitting will be a sweater or two. We'll see! I don't think I'm taking the intarsia project. There's just too much to bring for that one... Ah. Truly exciting.