Willow World by Lotta Lundin. I have loved this blanket from the moment I saw it and I am so excited to make it. The pattern is really just a chart with some very spare cast on information but then, it is a blanket and the information provided is really all I need to be getting on with.
The charts are printed out just like sweing patterns, where there is a section per page. I did have to set the scale on my printer so it printed properly but that really wasn't a big problem to sort out. I put it together so that I could see the whole thing at once figuring that would help me stay on track. This is also where I wished I remembered how to fold up a blueprint properly so that it pulled out nicely from a stapled bunch of pages. Oh well.
What a lovely design. I had thought seriously about drafting my own but this is so much better. I am not a designer nor do I have the patience or the eye to do it well. I can follow a design, but inventing one is much much harder. It is nice to see that somewhere out there are other knitters with my same fascination for blue and white china patterns.
In a perfect world, I would be knitting it with pure wool, but the yarn I want to use for this was from my grandkids making it the best yarn in the world. Bernat Supersoft. There are advantages to using this. It's a blanket so I want to not worry about putting it away when not in use. I want to drape it on the chair and have it out all the time. I want to be able to wash it easily. See all that white yarn? I am not that clean and tidy so I want easy care in every way.
The downside is that the nicest way to knit this is in the round so there is the steeking to be worried about. Steeking works with wool because wool felts and the yarn stays in place. Acrylic not so much. I am concerned that the wear a blanket takes will make for unstable edges. I already have a plan to deal with that trouble when I get to it and that less than pretty but sturdy edge will be hidden inside an applied icord edge.
I started knitting the border in stockinette and then realized the better option would be garter stitch edges, so I switched to garter stitch. I left the edge as it was. It will roll up nicely and I will finish the cast off in the same way. The edges will match the icord sides without the effort of icord. You can see the tidy little roll here.
I had hoped to be able to start the colourwork this morning, but I have two garter ridges to do till I am there. There is not point overdoing it. My hands and I are starting to come to an understanding as I learn how to adapt to knitting with some arthritic joints.
I am also going to start working on socks. The Yarn Harlot is doing her same grab bag and pattern prep for a year of socks. She is committing to ten rows a day on each sock so that each month, she will have a pair of socks appearing without hardly a thought. I found I really enjoyed the advent socks I made doing then rows per day on each sock, so I am thinking seriously of doing this same thing. I have not knit too many sock patterns, much preferring to knit plain socks up till now, but I find that the ones I reach for first, the ones I wear a lot, are ones that took some thinking. Like my advent socks, like my much loved monster socks, like Monkey socks, I seem to be looking for just a little something more in my sock knitting these days. It might be fun to set up sock surprises and see what happens.
I also have big plans for that pile of fabric I have in the sewing room. I have a miniature garden to work on for my miniature house. I have puzzles to set. I have new novels to read. (Starting yesterday. National Just Read More Novels Month begins! NaJuReMoNoMo on Facebook) And I have grandkids to play with. There is no possible way to be bored with all this wealth of things to do.
I am looking forward with a great deal of joy to this new year. Best get on with it.
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