I think I wrote in my last post that I planned on using all my sister Nancy's wool that was worsted weight (or close enough) to make a blanket for her grandson Grayson.
After spending time sorting it all - first by weight - then by colour, I bagged what I thought was yarn that would work well in a slip stitch blanket. Then I paired different balls and skeins to see what combinations I could come up with.
The biggest challenge for me was to NOT introduce any of my own yarn. I really want this to be all Nana's yarn, without help from my stash. Indeed, the colours are a tad limited, because she used this yarn in projects for herself or friends. And she wasn't thinking "what would my 8-year old Grandson like in a blanket".
There are lots of pinks, corals, blues and purples. Luckily there are skeins from a grey sweater that got frogged and some wonderful variegated bits that will work with just about anything. So far, I am happy to say it doesn't look too "girlie" for him.
I didn't have a particular pattern in mind. And I wasn't even sure about how many stitches I would need to determine the width. I settled on 300 stitches on a 6 mm needle. I really have no idea how wide it is, but think it is probably between 36 and 40 inches. It is not meant to be a bed blanket - more of a snuggle with Nana blanket. To wrap himself in her yarn and do whatever....
Here it is in progress. I have just started the sixth 5-repeat section. A long way to go. How long? Not sure, but at least until her wool runs out. And there is a LOT of it.
In lieu of a real colour plan, yesterday I arranged balls of yarn below the already-knit part and took a picture when I thought the arrangement looked good. There is likely to be some tweaking, but at least I have a line up to follow as I change colours. (Apparently, I shot a video - who knew!) I just wanted a picture. Hope it will play.
On the hooking front, it's harder to get hooking done with a "full house" than knitting, but I did manage to finish Bucket Head Jackson. This was supposed to be a sample for my "Faceless Portraits" class at Trent. It will be another gift to my daughter and son-in-law for their collection of "precious moments".
These are small pieces, mounted on 8 x 10 stretched canvases, and will look great all grouped together when there are enough. This is the third one for them in this format. There are some other smaller pieces done before the "gallery wall" idea came to be. I may mount earlier ones in this format as well.
I have just started a new one, this time of Charlie (son Matt and DIL Theo's little guy). It's pretty adorable and I will share it after it is gifted to his parents. His first birthday is just about a month away, so I will save it for that special occasion.
In the meantime, NANA'S BLANKET is at the forefront, since I don't want to take forever before giving this to Grayson. I promise to share progress.
No comments:
Post a Comment