That Blanket. Yes, THAT one.

I finished it. The family plaid blanket is done.

And I'm never doing another one. Not ever. Even if it does look pretty great. The work is not worth the output. Maybe I could translate it into a potholder pattern. Now that's small enough that I could get behind it.

I also took a break from the blanket insanity to finish Johnny's Go Bro Beanie in time to send it off for his birthday. I tweaked my pattern a bit so that the stripes decreased in thickness as they reach the top of the hat. I love how it turned out.

In other yarny news, I have inherited a box full of knitting and crocheting paraphernalia from my fiance's grandmother. It took a long evening sorting things out but I now own more straight needles than may be considered sane. She was quite crafty in her day. She taught knitting to 4H kids, and when we went through her house a few months back, I found an unfinished afghan by her chair.

The first time I met his grandmother was at the funeral of her only son. She hugged me and told me to take care of her grandson. I think I've done a decent job at it so far, and I'm hoping she went knowing that he would be in good hands. I'll take good care of all the bits and bobs she inadvertently left in my possession too. It's almost like she planned for a yarn-loving granddaughter-in-law.

Yes, by the way, I did say fiance. The wedding is set for June 16th at the chapel of our undergrad alma mater. I have the yarn already purchased for my wedding veil and a few patterns I'm still deciding between. That will be the next project. All others are on hold, due to wedding plans and a thesis that needs to be complete by April.

Somehow, life seems to be coming together, one stitch at a time.

How to Avoid Startitis

It's January, and as every knitter knows, there's a familiar bug going around. Startitis. It's the cold-weather-meets-start-of-a-new-year push we get to start casting on. We eye patterns, buy yarn, start multiple projects all at once.

I manage to avoid that last symptom year-round, but it's the hardest to do in January. I do it through a sheer force of will, the will to finish one project before I allow myself to start another. That's why I haven't cast anything new on this month, despite my repeated yearning looks at all the patterns in My Grandmother's Knitting. I requested this particular knitting book probably half a year ago from the library and it finally came in this past week. Not only are there all these wonderful stories about big knitwear designers' elderly family members and what they may or may not have knit, it also has a bunch of gorgeous patterns, including vintage gloves, a few interesting sock patterns, reinvented knitted slippers, and a very intriguing dishcloth. In particular, I'm itching to knit myself the Ice Skating Cape, which doubles as a very cute ruffled skirt.

I haven't cast on any of them though. I'm too busy, you see, trying to finish that giant blanket I started in December, the Family Plaid Woven Crochet Afghan.

Don't get me wrong, I've made a lot of progress. I've had the base grid finished for probably two weeks now. It's pictured above, with Kitkat at the top to show a sense of the scale involved. If I gave up now, it would make a lovely rug, but I'm going to finish this thing.

The next step of the plaid-creating process requires one 60-inch chain for each column of holes in the grid. For all of those who don't want to get a magnifying glass to count how many holes that is, this means 109 60-inch chains: 17 in light blue, 6 in white, 38 in dark blue, and 48 in green. So far, I have the 17 light blue, 6 white, and 28 of the dark blue done. That leaves 58 chains left total before final blanket assembly. Then I get to weave 109 chains through a zillion tiny holes and then weave in all the ends, two ends per chain, 218 total. What was I thinking?

I've been trying for 10 chains a night. If I keep at it, I'll have all the chains done before the end of next week.

Of course, I haven't forgotten all those patterns I've been eyeing. I'm looking forward to making another sweater for myself to wear to work, a celebratory full-time employment sweater, plus that delightful cape. First, though, my niece needs a cowl stat to combat a bout of Bronchitis, and my brother's best friend Johnny, who feels a lot like a member of the extended family, has requested that I make him a Michigan beanie too. There's still a lot that needs to come off of these needles before the month's out.

The Christmas Knitgiving.

All the presents are delivered and it's safe to share my knitting. Of course, you already saw the boy's teacher's apple sock. But that was only a taste of all the yarny goodness I gave out this year.

I made the nephew a bunch of knitted veggies for his birthday over the summer. He loved them but was a bit sad when there was no banana. The kid loves bananas. Like any good aunt, I made sure to correct the situation at Christmas-time. In with his Cars road-rug, one crocheted banana:

So the niece wouldn't feel left out, I gave her a little something with her acoustic-guitar-toting LIV doll. Barbie's riding broom:

My brother made a specific request for a Michigan beanie months ago. In fact, he'd been whining that he still didn't have one at Thanksgiving. Boy, was he surprised. A Michgian beanie for him and one each for the other men in the immediate family, my dad and my bro-in-law.

While Borders was going out of business, I was grabbing up clearanced knitting magazines like candy. In the one I brought with me to my parents' place, my mom saw a cowl. She loved the idea of a scarf that couldn't fall off your shoulders, but the one pictured in the magazine wasn't her style exactly. I searched though book after book until I found the perfect one, a simple lace-patterned snood. Mom picked out the yarn color (I grabbed enough wool-ease to do the job when Jo-Ann's had a sale.) She seemed happy with the result.

Now that the holiday's are over, I've been making steady progress on the woven Scottish plaid blanket. I've been having some extensive writer's block and thinking through it while my hands work with yarn. I'm only 12 rows away from completion of the base grid. Pictures to come when it's all finished.

Apple Sock (for the avoidance of bruises) + the jury duty blanket

I've been knitting up a frenzy here, where finally the first lasting snowfall of the year has landed, just in time for the holidays (though I'm told it's supposed to heat up later this week). However, because everything is a gift for someone else, I can't show any of it off for fear of discovery by the intended victims... I mean recipients.

Because the boy's teacher had to have her gift before the winter break, though, I've already gifted hers. I made her an apple sock.

This seems way better than just gifting an apple. It's the equivalent of teaching a man to fish rather than buying him one fish dinner.

Of course, I couldn't knit all last week, because I was in jury duty. All week. Knitting needles are considered weapon-like and are thus banned from the court house. I did what any self-respecting ravelry-acount-owning citizen would do. I crocheted instead. And like a good English major, I listened to the fifth Harry Potter on my ipod while I did so. The first day, when I didn't have the pattern and yarn ready yet, I read through a book and a half of short stories.

What is the pattern, you might ask?
Why, I'm using woven crochet to make a blanket recreating my family's ancestral Scottish plaid:

I worked on it from tuesday through to friday and this is how much I've got done already:

I have another repeat and a half of the main plaid pattern (4 rows blue, 4 rows navy, 4 rows green, 1 row white, 4 rows green, 4 rows navy, 4 rows green, 1 row white, 4 rows green, 4 rows navy, 4 rows blue, 1 row navy). After that, I'll be chaining 1 chain per row in the pattern colors to weave through the mesh holes in the blanket base to make the vertical stripes that will turn the horizontal stripes into a plaid.

I'm not sure how long this blanket will take, now that I'm starting my new full time job on Monday, especially seeing as I still have thesis hours left and a thesis to revise for spring graduation. But that's okay. I'm looking forward to my first real job ever, even if it eats into my yarn time.