Scallop Blanket

I finished my Scallop Blanket. This was another shining example of my inability to plan yarn requirements. I ran out three rounds from the end and had to order a single skein to finish. The kicker? I extended the pattern because I didn't think it would be big enough. Well, thanks to my extensions, it ended at 62"! I added 12 rounds, so it would have been about 55" if I had left it alone and four skeins would have been plenty.

I knitted most of this blanket while I was waiting for the yarn to finish Kometenstern. Then I finished Kometenstern while I was waiting for the yarn for this. Both were knit with Beaverslide Dry Goods McTaggart Tweeds, so I'm now on quite friendly terms with the owner, Leann. I think I've mentioned once or twice how much I love her yarn, so I'm happy to contribute to the care and feeding of her sheep.

The color is "Snowberry", which looks like old fashioned strawberry ice cream. It's pale pink, with darker strawberry flecks and it looks good enough to eat. I used 4.25 skeins (900 yards) for 98 rounds on US 9 needles. The pattern is from Burda lace special #554, which is almost impossible to find due to the fact that it's chock full of Niebling designs. This isn't one of his, but it's listed as nice beginner lace. It's simple and repetitive, but I love the finished effect as a blanket. It's warm where it needs to be, looks dainty and is perfect for this yarn.

As usual, I'm so excited to be done, that my photos are all taken during blocking. It's still damp on my bed, so I'll have to wait for action shots. Maybe I'll get it out with Kometenstern one of these days and play Glamour Shots with both of them.

As always, click the pictures, and then click them again to see them larger.

Kometenstern blanket

I finished Kometenstern, which is my first Herbert Niebling pattern. It was quite challenging to interpret the German instructions and to learn a new charting system. I had to stop in the middle because I ran out of yarn. Fortunately, I ordered two more skeins. I used both of them, even though I stopped a few rounds early. The original has a very pointy border that I didn't like for a blanket. It's still sort of pointy, but it works.

Kometenstern translates to "comet star". When I first saw the pattern, I saw a swirling pattern of ferns. The other name for it, "Schleuderblatt" means "centrifuge doily". No matter what you call it, it's a fascinating spiral embedded in mesh. The mesh seems to flow around the central motif and is surprisingly thick due to the stitches that are passed over to make it. It has a nice raised texture.



I knit this with about 1000 yards of Beaverslide McTaggart Tweeds "Wild Myrtle" on US10's. It's a delicious deep blue-purple with lighter flecks. After my usual blocking bath in Eucalan, it's very soft and fluffy. Once it dries, it will be a lightweight but very warm lap blanket.

I'm really loving this and can't wait to see how it looks unpinned. For now though, here's a preview (click the pictures, and then click them again in the preview window to see them larger):

Blood, Sweat and Tears - Blocking Egeblad

I knitted another doily blanket - Egeblad by Christine Duchrow (http://www.yarnover.net/patterns/doilies/kunststrik/egeblad.html). It is a fantastic pattern with a swirling flower in the center and concentric, yet slightly offset, radiating leaves. I knit this one with Beaverslide McTaggart Tweeds in the color "Prairie Sandreed" on US10's.

This was interesting to block, so I decided to document my way of doing it, from start to finish.

Since I fell in love with knitting doily blankets, I wanted a good way to wash them. I went out and shopped in the home storage section of a local store. I found two plastic totes - one clear one and one white one with holes like you'd use to store kid's toys or cleaning supplies. The one with holes fits nicely inside the clear one. I chose clear so I could see if dye was leaching out of yarn as I washed it.

I filled the clear one half-full with tepid water and a squirt of Ivory soap. Then I put my blanket it the white one and submerged it. With a little swishing, I saturated the blanket and left it to soak for a little while. Beaverslide is great yarn, but it has the occasional piece of Montana prairie in it and it still has some lanolin. This yarn wasn't as greasy as the Prairie Aster Fisherman Weight, but it was still sheepy enough to want a good soak.



Next, the white tote lifted right out and let the blanket drain while I refilled the clear tote with fresh tepid water. This is where the totes pay for themselves because wet wool should never be lifted without supporting its weight. I can squeeze the fabric against one side to get excess water out, but mostly gravity does its thing. You also never want to run water directly on wool because that can contribute to felting.



I repeated this until the water was clear and the soap suds were gone. Prairie Aster made the water fairly purple, but this Prairie Sandreed really held the dye well through washing. The last soak was tepid water with Eucalan. Eucalan is great stuff because it smells really good and it protects the yarn from moths. There is no need to rinse and the wool comes out deliciously soft.

I block on my bed and wet, soggy wool would be an unmitigated disaster. My washing machine does not have an easily programmed spin cycle, so I use towels to get the wool mostly dry. I grabbed three or four thirsty towels in colors that wouldn't show any last dye residue. I spread one out flat on the bathroom floor, carefully spread the wet blanket in as near to a single layer as possible and rolled it up like a jelly roll.



Next, I stomped all over the roll in my bare feet. This really gets the water out of the blanket and into the towels. Your socks will get soaked if you don't take them off. This is the therapeutic part of blocking. Stomp. Stomp.



Now comes the blood, sweat and tears part of blocking. I laid the blanket out on my bed, using a spare comforter to protect the mattress.

1. Pin the center.
2. Pin the tips of all of the flower petals. Stretch the fabric out so they lay flat. I pin through the decreases because the stitches are thicker and hold the pins better. If the fabric is puckering or looking stressed, use more pins. Any stressed areas will show in your finished blanket, but you want to stretch this enough to make it lay flat and open the stitch patterns. The whole thing needs to spread out, but don't put all of that work on one poor little stitch.

See how the two petals look different before and after pinning?



3. Move out to the next layer and pin the tips of those points too.




4. Now work systematically around the blanket, stretching it and pinning the points of the leaves. Grab big handfuls of fabric and hold it down with the flat of your hand. Again, don't stress individual stitches here. Pull out and sideways to make the pattern open up. Use LOTS of pins.



5. When you get to the border, pin the stitches at the very tips of the leaves to anchor the edges.



6. Evenly spread out the scallops and pin through the stitches. Egeblad blocks into a perfect circle, without the ruffled edges of the Hemlock Ring. If you try to do this step first, it's really difficult to get the middle to open up. Point of note, I crocheted five chains on these scallops instead of eight per the pattern. They're still quite open so I possibly could have done three.



At this point, my back and neck are aching, I've poked myself with a multitude of pins and I think it's never going to end. Remember when I said use a lot of pins? I started with 500 and ended with..



After 45 minutes or so, I was done pinning. It was so worth it though. Look at this:

Getting intimate with blocking

A few months ago, I barely knew what blocking was. Now I am becoming very familiar because of the Hemlock Ring Blankets. They won't lay flat without it, but how do I do it?

The first one was easy. Cascade 220 is very clean, fluffy, well-groomed wool. It has nice stitch definition and feels lofty without a lot of messing about. I steam-blocked to get my stitches to relax and take on the shape of a finished blanket.

The second is not so easy. Beaverslide already smells a little sheepy, which I personally like. I will not like it so much if it is hot and damp all over my bed. Even Cascade gets a little sheepy when steamed but this would be intense. Also, it has a lot of lanolin that seems to be holding the fibers together like.. pomade. I can't describe it properly, but it feels a little crisp and a little greasy, although the yarn is lofty and looks good. Lanolin keeps the sheep warm and dry and they don't look unkempt in their natural state, but it does do something to the yarn. In a blanket that will hopefully be cuddled, I'd like to reduce the waterproofing and increase the smooshy love.

So, before throwing my hard work into a tub of water and ruining it somehow, I swatched. I made a nice rectangle and soaked it in tepid water with a little Ivory soap. I thought this might help break up the fatty lanolin and help remove vegetable matter. I rinsed and rinsed until it was clear and then soaked it again in a tepid bath of Eucalan. Then I gently squeezed it out, rolled it in a towel and pinned it overnight.

The results are amazing. Photos don't capture it as well as I'd like, but it bloomed. The left half of the photo is the washed swatch. It's soft, supple, fluffy and smooth. The right side is the unblocked blanket. It has very crisp stitch definition, but it's almost too crisp. With this tweedy wool, I think a smoother finish will actually show the texture better because the bloom plumps up the stitches and fills in the gaps.



And now for something completely different..

With all of this rain, we have some unusual first-time visitors to the yard. Two days in a row, they've been hanging out in the lawn.

A new decrease for the Hemlock

After the first Hemlock Ring, I wanted to try a different double decrease for the flower petals. The original pattern calls for sl 1, k2tog, psso. This leaves a definite slant for the decrease, even though it's removing two stitches from the pattern. It also creates a looser stitch across the front of the fabric. The slanted stitches look good, but I wanted something different the next time around.



I'm working on another one and this time I'm using a double decrease. It still removes two stitches but it's balanced. To do it, slip 2 together as if to knit (like the beginning of a k2tog), k1, pass the two slipped stitches over. The two slipped stitches twist and stay together, so slipping them is easy. It leaves a nice raised ridge that is centered between the decreased stitches. The tips of the petals don't stand out quite as much because the stitches are smaller and blend in. It's a different look than the first.



I have to say, I love the Beaverslide yarn. It's like the granola of the yarn world - minimally processed and contains fiber. It still has lanolin so my hands feel soft and it has a gentle whiff of sheep about it. I come across the occasional bit of grass or leaf but they pick out easily. Some people may prefer a cleaner yarn, but I feel connected to those sheep in Montana and it reminds me that this isn't some mass-produced acrylic. It's such a joy to knit. I can't wait to get this off the needles and block it. So far the stitch definition is lovely.

(http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hemlock-ring-blanket)

Beaverslide Dry Goods

My Beaverslide Yarn came today! I am so thrilled. I bought four colors in the Fisherman weight yarns, three of which are technically McTaggart Tweeds. It's lovely, nubbled, squishy yarn with amazing depth. It looks different depending on the light and the closer you get, the more you see. It still has some natural lanolin so my room smells slightly of sheep - this makes me happy.



Prairie Aster:

This is a glorious, rich purple with deep reds, bright blues, white and lavender flecks. These photos are lighter than it really looks. The photo of all four together is a closer representation.







Prairie Sandreed:

This is a fresh, pale green with flecks of sky blue, yellow and white.





Oat Straw:

If anything, this makes me think of cornmeal. It's a soft yellow with brighter yellow, white and brown flecks.





Cutthroat Trout:

This is a dusty pink with flecks of bright pink, yellow, white and occasionally brown.