By the time I'd posted my blog entry the other day my fingers were itching to knit and I walked into my studio thinking I'd get started on that scarf … except I'd forgotten to print off the pattern or even check which size of needles to use. I also realized I wanted something that could feel finished a little faster than a mammoth scarf - my other projects right now are all pretty big - and I wasn't totally sure I wanted to crack open my minis yet anyway.

So I pulled out a remnant ball of sock yarn and cast on a square for the Barn Raising Quilt. I finished it on Thursday night and was feeling pretty happy about it but by Friday I wanted to make another one. I finished that one sitting in the living room with Abby this morning and cast on a third just now while I was waiting for the kettle to boil. They are a perfect project. They start off small and quick and just about when you're starting to think a round is taking more than a minute to accomplish it's time to cast off. And there you are with a square that's actually big enough to be something and it won't even take all that many of them to make a decent sized blanket.

For those who are curious, all three squares are Socks that Rock Lightweight. The top is in the colourway "Lucy", the middle is "Jasper" and the bottom, just started square is "Beryl".

I started crocheting a blanket last night.

Actually, since I'm still learning to crochet, I started it a few times.

Once I got going it was really fun. Crochet has a nice rhythm to it. I've had this blanket in my head for a while now. I wanted to use up all my scraps of worsted weight yarn somehow so I thought I would start crocheting them together. I was going to make it a solid square but kept messing up the corners - a failure to count my stitches properly I think - so I decided to follow the instructions I had for doing a granny square and just kept going. The whole blanket will be one big square. I started with the really tiny balls of leftovers to get plenty of colour changes in the middle. It's so much fun to work on. I'm only typing this out now because my wrist is too sore to keep going. Instead of seeming like a big project it is a bunch of tiny project - one ball of yarn each. I keep saying to myself "I'll just finish this ball" and then I get to the end and can't stop myself picking out the next one. I'm finding weird colour combinations and remembering old projects. Just like with random patchwork, I can't wait to see how this will turn out. I don't think I have enough scraps to finish it very soon though. It will be a work in progress for a while.

... but I'll probably start using it for a lap blanket as soon as it's big enough.

My quilt survived the wash ... and feels wonderful and warm. I am wrapped up in it as I write. That trip through the washer completes my reasoning for this quilt. I'm not sure if you can really create a quilt out of laziness but that is how this one started: I had this lovely bag of scraps from Erin but I wanted to wash them before they went into my stash and I was just too lazy to wash and press that many little pieces. I knew they would fray and leave bits of thread everywhere and it just seemed like it would be easier to wash them without any of the raw edges showing. So I sewed them all together and made a quilt.

I had no idea what this would look like when I started. The scraps are very random and range from tiny little calicos to novelty prints of candy and insects. There are two different hot chili fabrics. Some pieces were large strips while others were tiny rectangles. There was even a small collection of triangles. It was so exciting to see things come together that I could hardly stand to work on anything else. I owe thanks to Blair of Wisecraft for the idea of using a solid colour for the binding and flannel for the backing. The flannel is so soft and warm and the binding really pulls everything together.


I spent almost the whole time I was piecing trying to figure out how I would quilt this. With so many little seams I was worried that machine quilting would result in a stiff quilt instead of the squashiness I was hoping for. I liked the idea of tying the quilt but I know from experience that Abby will happily spent an afternoon pulling out every last one. My compromise was to tie the quilt with bars of satin stitch on my machine (there is a quilt finished this way in Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts). I love the effect but did not enjoy the day spent tying off and sewing in all those little thread ends.


This quilt will live in our family room and I plan to spend plenty of time this winter curled up under it with a good book. It finished up at about 160 x 200 cm (65" x 80") making it a perfect size for curling up under without being too big. Abby and Zeke have both show a liking for this quilt while it was under production and I expect it will be regularly covered in a layer of insulating pet hair (what a good thing I know it can survive the wash).