Anything yummy?








Why, hello.


I'm not the only one watching.

Pattern: Hemlock Ring Blanket adapted by Jared Flood
Yarn: Patons Classic Wool
Size: As written
Yardage: 2.5 skeins
Needles: 4.00 mm

I'm very glad to finally be done this project. I really enjoyed working on it - it's a perfect balance of mindless and pattern knitting - but with my currently limited knitting time it just took too long. I wanted to move on to other things and my basket is only so big.

My favourite part of the knitting was probably the flower petals. Most of the lace patterns I've done have involved charts so I could see what I was going to be knitting but this pattern is all text. I didn't even know I was making petals until I was past them and stretched out the fabric. So cool. I love the big gaps at the petal bases too; they looked like they were going to be really annoying to do - like casting off and casting on again or something like that - but they are just yarn overs with lots of stitches in them. So easy.


The cast off is really nice too. It uses the same yarn over technique as the petal bases but is fiddlier because there is a lot of turning involved; I spent most of the time I was working on it trying to decide if I could alter it to involve less turning. I had plenty of time to contemplate it too because it took me most of four hours to do the cast off! It's the first time I've taken more than one sitting to cast something off. It also took a lot of yarn; I joined in the last ball half way through the last plain round of knitting just before the cast off and still used almost half of it. All those little loops made blocking the blanket really easy though.

After blocking and relaxing my blanket is just under a metre (about 38") across at the widest point. It's a lot smaller than I'd expected it to turn out but then again I never once checked gauge. It might work for a small shawl but will probably end up either in the hope chest or being frogged and reknit. I'd like to knit this pattern again at a larger gauge -- maybe 5.00 mm or 5.50 mm - to get something more like a lap blanket but I'm not sure if I want to do it again right away; I'll probably wait for a while, and maybe get a another colour or a slightly heavier yarn.


Abby gave the blanket instant approval (and a taste test).

... posted several days late because at the end of the weekend I decided to rearrange my desk and it took way longer than I expected to get back to some sort of order.

This weekend (the one that just pasted) was our first summery weekend of the year. Saturday was sunny with just a touch of wind and 13 degrees. It doesn't sound all that warm but after the winter it feel quite balmy and we ventured outside without coats or hats. It felt so liberating to be just wearing a sweater and some shoes (no boots needed). We went to Canadian Tire and got a bird feeder and some birdseed.


We let Abby out to run around the yard off-leash while we set up the feeder and checked around our emerging lawn. She was pretty good at staying near where we were but did run across the street to meet a new person and next door to try our neighbour's garden remains once. More practice is required (getting a fence up will help too). It was a lot of fun to watch her explore the back yard. It's full of fun things likes sticks and water right now. She particularly enjoyed the snow that remains on our back deck and in the yard. Running all over and then laying on it belly down to cool off. She gleefully found and ate most of the birdseed we'd dropped on the snow while trying to close the feeder (she also really likes peas).


The most exciting part of the day was to be found hiding in the front lawn. Yep, there is grass growing in there. The snow wasn't even completely gone but I could already catch a hint of that grassy summer smell. So good.


We had such a lazy Sunday morning. Zeke slept on the bed. Abby slept on the couch. We ate pancakes right out of the pan. Eventually I got around to the stack of fabric I'd picked out last week and made myself a chair cushion but I'll save the details for another post.


Our kitchen table is currently decorated with the first vase of goodness from our very own yard. A bunch of pussy willows in all their woody, fuzzy beauty.