Tuesday 12 May 2009

Mitered Square Blanket

Yesterday was sunny and gorgeous and I had the chance to get outside with my recently completed mitered square blanket and take a couple photo's.

I'm very happy with the final result. I think that my initial goal of gradually going through all the colours of the rainbow from corner to corner was achieved. I used 27 different colours in this blanket, and I only had one 50g ball of each colour, so I had to make sure that I really mixed it up and didn't end up with the same colour repeating itself too often in one square. 

My plan was basically to just wing it. I had an original sketch that I used as a pretty strict guide. When I originally drew the blanket using the rainbow gradation I used my box of 92 coloured pencils to colour the thing in, so I had about 7 different shades of pink represented, 11 blues and turquoises, obviously I didn't think I should buy 92 different colours of yarn to match my sketch perfectly, so I just bought what I thought I'd need and then when knitting I used whatever colour matched the sketch closest. It was fun seeing it come together. I often ended up with squares that I didn't particularly like, but then when it was all seamed and viewed as a whole it worked.

The border was knit onto each side separately and then the corners were sewn together. I didn't have enough of any handful of colours to do a continuous border all around, so with the exception of the final 4 rows of garter stitch that were done in light gray on all 4 sides, each side is different. I really like that about the finished product. The border really adds a lot to this project. I still don't have a border on my Lizard Ridge afghan, but after seeing the difference in this blanket before and after border, I realize that I really should get on that. 

This blanket is perfect for curling up on the couch, or for having a picnic! If only Stella would sit still!

Now that that's finally off the needles (after 2 years!) I've started a new colourful project! It's Design 6 from Noro Collection Book 3. It's knitting up really fast and as always with Kureyon, it's always a fun surprise to see how each ball will stripe. It's not really a summer appropriate project, but it's fun and pretty mindless, plus it's Kureyon, just what I needed.