Tag: mitered square

My Knitting Life

End of an Era (or, It’s Not Done Until You’ve Blogged About it)

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Blanket on chair

Here I present the end of an era. It’s the end because I started this leftover sock yarn blanket in the fall of 2008. After almost 9 years, a lot of changes have happened. It’s inevitable. The kids grew up, we moved almost across the country, went from a house to a condo, and now we own e-bikes, for crying out loud! Change happens! It is time to knit other things. Or, finish other things, because of the way my year went, with teaching almost a full schedule at school, and then throwing teaching 3 graduate classes for SLC teachers on top of that! I have about 5 projects that are mostly finished, but need a little more attention.
Back to this blanket-afghan-throw thingie. I wasn’t sure how big I was going to make it; I was just enjoying the process. But 8.5 years later, I’ve decided to finish. And by finish, I mean, squaring it off, not adding any height or width to it, and most importantly, edging it in i-cord! The edging, you see, is like a stopper; it prevents me from adding more rows. Smart, huh? Done.

Blanket on wall

But at the end of this crazy-sock- leftovers-turned-into-a-blanket era, I have a crazy urge to come up with something else “scrappy” because I’ve still got a small tub of sock-yarn leftovers. Maybe in a year I will have a new pattern to show.
I briefly entertained the idea of putting this on Etsy for a ridiculous sum of money. I was thinking something over $2500, just to see if anyone would “bite.” But that’s cheap. Way too cheap. I calculated my labor at $10/hr (hey, I’m a skilled knitter!), 30 minutes per block which takes into account tucking in loose ends and knitting the i-cord edging. So, with 380 blocks @ 30 minutes per block, that’s 190 hours. Multiply that by the $10 per hour, and the labor cost on this blanket is around $1900.  That doesn’t include the yarn. And it takes a lot of sock knitting to accumulate a great variety of yarn. (That was my excuse, anyway). So, the next time someone knits something for you, they don’t do it to save money or time. They do it because they LOVE you!

For now I’ll just sit on my balcony on cool mornings and enjoy the warmth of this throw.

 

My Knitting Life

Held Hostage, Part 2

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  I’ll admit it. I’m a stash and project hostage.  Through the process of moving I saw my accumulation of yarn. The quantity of that yarn stash was paltry by some standards, but it was just too much. (As I teach my students who are learning English, that word “too” followed by a quantity word is never a good thing, e.g. I ate too much, Its too far away, etc.)  I questioned myself: Why do you have so much? What are you missing out on by already having a lot? 

By having that stash, I’ve missed out on yarn trends that I really wanted to try. Like knitting something, anything with Kauni Effektgarn, any new lux fiber, something in Spud & Chloe, a little Madelinetosh number, anything and everything! I’ve passed up simply because of all that yarn that used to be in my basement. I mean, how can I justify spending more? I hope you can feel how long this guilt has gone on, I mean, some of this yarn has been out for a decade! 

So I gave away and sold lots of that bondage in those cute little fiber balls. I still have 2 smallish tubs full (yes, that kind of full, the kind where you almost have to sit on the box lid!), but it’s still only 2 tubs. In the meantime, I’ll continue to finish and knit, and when I do, I’m going to participate fully in trends and fibers, classes and shops. 

Sorry to wax so philosophical here for two posts in a row. Let’s get unserious now. Here are a few UFOs that I’m motivated to finish with accompanying captions below the photo:

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Socks for my brother who, strangely, wears out the toes! Just search for my basic ribbed sock pattern.

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The knitting is done on this nine patch mitered square blanket, but I have about 5 squares worth of weaving in those darn loose ends!

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I don’t want to knit gloves…what was I thinking? Too much fussy-work on the fingers. So I’m making a change to:

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MITTENS! Once I decided to change from gloves to mittens, I was suddenly motivated to finish these. 

And last, but certainly not least:

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Yes, the famous moose hats. It takes about 1.5 hours to duplicate stitch each moose on the hat…x 4 moose = 6 hours just of duplicate stitch! My son better not wash this, or it’s curtains for him!

Now I’ve pared down my UFOs.  What about you?

 

Knitting Patterns For Sale · My Knitting Life

Nine Patch Update

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9 patch 1
Since we’re just coming out of “Finish It In February” month, I feel motivated to get busy working on my original design, “Nine Patch Mitered Square Afghan.”
Check it out here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/nine-patch-mitered-square-afghan
I am going to make this 4 squares tall and 6 squares long. It’s going to be more of a throw or a lap afghan. I really like how it’s mixed media (sort of), because it’s knitted, but it looks like a quilt!
9 patch 2
9 patch 3

Knitting Patterns For Sale · My Knitting Life

Nine Patch Mitered Square Blanket

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I continue to work on this blanket in a mitered square. I originally was going to use only superwash worsted scraps for this blanket, but once I got started and decided to make my own pattern, I decided I should BUY yarn for it! But I haven’t bought that much, and I’m waiting on some more superwash at my fabulous LYS: Knitting Today! Check it out in my links!
You can buy the pattern for just $1.00 on Ravelry!