The Blanket: An Introduction
Many moons ago, I learned that one of my very favorite people in the whole wide world was getting married (she's gone and done it already, now), and I wanted to get her or make her something extra super special. I was sort of starting to consider making her a blanket, because one of my favorite wedding gifts was this blanket from my father:
A nice blanket is a good wedding gifty kind of thing. Substantial, lasting, keeps them warm, it's something for them to use together. The kind of thing that might fall out of daily use, but you'll be using it for guests or picnicing or whatever 20 years later and say "That was a gift for our wedding." But that's a whole mother lode of knitting, and a lot of yarn dollars, and a big commitment. I am TOTALLY into the idea of making quilts, but I haven't actually completed any just yet, and didn't want to get into a big mess of trying to make my first quilt and face all of those disasters that are bound to happen and try to get it all just right and then give away my very first quilt ever. It's going to be a labor of love and intensity and also probably that 'child only a mother could love,' that first quilt. I would feel bad for me AND for them to give them my first.
I'd been getting into trying out different things with knitting, different stitch patterns, different shapes (miters! log-cabins! short-rows!). I love designing and thinking about design and seeing other people's designs and wondering how they came up with them. I often love really complicated things but I have a hard time imagining how I could sit down and think up the details of a really big, complex design that has lots of "randomness" and isn't too uniform but all still really works together. But oh! There's color - it's sort of the cheap trick of tying things together. Take three of anything in three different shades of blue with different patterns that don't match at all. Add two more in other shades of blue and you've gone from "mish-mash" to "lovely coordinated set." So I could just knit a lot of stuff with some common/coordinated colors and it would all come together, somehow, right?
Right. Smiley's sale. Intriguing green yarn. Interesting copper color. Check is exchanged for a GIANT bag of bags of yarn. Mix-it-up additional colors are added from friend's leftovers, Elann purchases, and my stash. And because it's not enough to knit an entire blanket, I will felt it a little at the end.
Last week, I pulled out all the bits I've got so far, and here's where we sit.
That is to say, with both a Good Beginning and a Long Way To Go.
A nice blanket is a good wedding gifty kind of thing. Substantial, lasting, keeps them warm, it's something for them to use together. The kind of thing that might fall out of daily use, but you'll be using it for guests or picnicing or whatever 20 years later and say "That was a gift for our wedding." But that's a whole mother lode of knitting, and a lot of yarn dollars, and a big commitment. I am TOTALLY into the idea of making quilts, but I haven't actually completed any just yet, and didn't want to get into a big mess of trying to make my first quilt and face all of those disasters that are bound to happen and try to get it all just right and then give away my very first quilt ever. It's going to be a labor of love and intensity and also probably that 'child only a mother could love,' that first quilt. I would feel bad for me AND for them to give them my first.
I'd been getting into trying out different things with knitting, different stitch patterns, different shapes (miters! log-cabins! short-rows!). I love designing and thinking about design and seeing other people's designs and wondering how they came up with them. I often love really complicated things but I have a hard time imagining how I could sit down and think up the details of a really big, complex design that has lots of "randomness" and isn't too uniform but all still really works together. But oh! There's color - it's sort of the cheap trick of tying things together. Take three of anything in three different shades of blue with different patterns that don't match at all. Add two more in other shades of blue and you've gone from "mish-mash" to "lovely coordinated set." So I could just knit a lot of stuff with some common/coordinated colors and it would all come together, somehow, right?
Right. Smiley's sale. Intriguing green yarn. Interesting copper color. Check is exchanged for a GIANT bag of bags of yarn. Mix-it-up additional colors are added from friend's leftovers, Elann purchases, and my stash. And because it's not enough to knit an entire blanket, I will felt it a little at the end.
Last week, I pulled out all the bits I've got so far, and here's where we sit.
That is to say, with both a Good Beginning and a Long Way To Go.
posted by AmberCake at 8:36 PM
3 Comments:
What a beautiful blanket you are knitting! :)
I hear you regarding liking complicated "patchwork" but not wanting to do all that pre-planning. I make up my quilts as I go along too. So I love the way your blanket is progressing :-) BTW, your response to Gerrie's rant was well stated and refreshing to hear.
I love what you're doing. Thanks for stopping by my blog. I added you to my bloglines--want to see how this turns out. :_
Post a Comment
<< Home