Adding to the Pile

I have fifteen project on the go.  For some of you, this is way too much.  I greatly admire people who can keep the number of WIPs low.  I sure can't.  When I have too few, I feel tense and off my feed.  When I have too many, I feel tense and off my feed.  

Every once in a while, startitis strikes and it feels as if I need, need, NEED to cast on all the things.  Often it happens when I don't know what to cast on, but more often, when a project I am working on isn't quite working out, or when there is a something on it, that I don't want to do.    

It is time to sew the squares together on Carter's Bento Box blanket.  As much as I know he is waiting for the blanket, I am really not inspired by the need to do said sewing.  Part of it is that I am not quite sure how I want to make the now square blanket into a rectangle.  Granny squares on the top and bottom?  Log cabin type sections? I really don't know which I like better.  Each idea has its merits.  Yesterday was supposed to be the day to deal with it.  

I cast on Carter's second blanket. 

It is going to be knit from this delicious Bernat Velvet.  This is a very mink feeling yarn.  When Carter and I were shopping earlier this year, this was the yarn he said he really loved the feel of. At the same time he wanted a bright eye blinding blanket so my special boy is getting both.  He never asked for anything before, or even alluded to anything he would like me to make so I decided then and there, he will get both. Velvet has a more sophisticated colour palette.  No brights here.  I choose a really gorgeous grey, Vapor Grey and the gentle blue, Indigo Velvet.

I am hoping six skeins will be enough.  

Right from the start, I felt the feather and fan pattern was what this yarn wanted to be.  The colours reminded me of ocean colours on a cloudy day so waves felt right.

I started the swatch with 6.5 mm needles as the yarn band suggested.

It felt really loose and far more open than I wanted.  It felt like the strands were liable to catch on everything.  That is not what a good blanket needs.  I went down the the next needle size I have free, a 5 mm.  I wanted to try 6 mm but the sixes are in use on other projects and the 5.5s seem to be somewhere else at the moment, so five was going to have to do.

That was actually the perfect size.  The fabric felt right.  It feels as though the fabric would flow gently over you as you snuggled without being stiff.  The tighter gauge does mean that I may run out of yarn sooner than I planned (as in before the blanket is big enough).

Since that is the same worry I have at some point in during each and every project, I set that fear aside and went boldly forward.

So yup,  I now have sixteen projects in my WIP bin.  I am feeling pretty good about that even if I am avoiding Carter's bright blanket.