Before I delve into finishing my Grandma’s blanket, I needed to test knit the pattern to make sure I understood all the notations and how it goes together. It took me a couple goes to get the stitch count correct (take the pattern repeat and add the edge stitches, so I remember for next time), but once the number was right, it came together well.

Swatching seems to be a hated or loved knitting activity. I fall on the love side. I would rather see how the pattern or yarn behaves on a small scale before delving into a large project. I used a stocking weight wool yarn, and size 6 circular needle, which is a far cry from the bulky yarn and size 11 needles used for the blanket, but it was the pattern I was investigating.

I see why my Grandma liked this pattern, and why she made it so many times. It looks complicated, but it flows well, and it is easy to “read” the prior row of stitches to figure out where you are. Then the back row just follows the previous row’s stitches, and goes in twos or fours predominately, which makes checking for errors easy. The swatch came out OK, and I feel comfortable with the pattern. I do think I will finish off this small piece with a suitable edging, and it can join the doll house blanket army.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. I was going through my Grandma’s knitting tools (I have inherited quite a few craft tools from both sides of the family), and found some home made yarn bobbins. My Grandma was an avid knitter and very skilled. It looks like Grandma used the commercially produced bobbin (yellow one on the left in the photo) as a template, and cut the others out of margarine tubs and other thick plastic. Very nicely done.

After making the baby hats from the rainbow acrylic yarn, I was left with a skein and a half of the stuff. Hm. The yarn has very short sections of color that repeated, could I knit it to make vertical stripes? The answer is: sort of. The color sections were not precise, so as I knitted I decreased or increased on the edges so the teal color lined up with the row before. I could then knit straight across without puckering the center of the fabric (although this might have been an interesting experiment as well). The resulting stripes undulated in interesting ways. Keeping the increases and decreases on the outside made the edges curl and pucker, but not entirely unpleasantly. It does help the edges curl in and hide the strange tan color the manufacturer threw into the mix.

Since I did not have enough to make a long scarf, I opted to join the ends to make an infinity scarf. I used the Kitchener stitch and a section of the rainbow repeat to join. I had to undo the foundation row and slip the loops onto a needle, then use a yarn needle to perform the steps of the stitch. There is a learning curve to the Kitchener stitch, but it is well worth the effort! I can see the join, because the colors don’t match up as well as I hoped, but the fabric is solid and smooth at the join, not a bulky seam. (There are many online tutorials for the Kitchener stitch for those interested, so I won’t repeat them here.)

All in all, an interesting exercise.

I was looking through my yarn stash for a bit of something and came across a UFO (or UnFinished Project as crafters like to call them). I was truly shocked, as I don’t have many UFOs (although I have many that I call done that never get used, so there you go). Turns out I blogged about them. Two years ago. Hm. I left them with only the ends to be woven in, a process that took about a half-hour to complete. I think I know why I abandoned the project, the heels are very strange and twisted. Laying there, the socks look uncomfortable.

I wove in the ends anyway and tried them on. The wonky heels didn’t make any difference in the fit. Huh. Well cool, now I have a pair of wool socks.

Hm. These socks are really comfy. I may have to attempt another pair. In a different pattern.