Clara's Blanket

Clara's Blanket

I made this for my new granddaughter.  I wanted to make a knitted blanket that was reversible and not lacy. The pattern is for a newborn.  You can make it bigger by making larger or more squares.

Gauge is not important.

I used size 6 straight knitting needles and a size G crochet hook

My blanket had 5-6 stitches per inch and each "square" was approx. 3.5 x 3.5 inches. The finished size of the blanket in this gauge is about 18" x 24" including the crocheted edge.

I used appox 450 yards of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran

Cast on 100 stitches

Rows 1-24 odd rows, Knit 20, Purl 20 to end (for 5 "squares")

                  even rows, Purl 20, Knit 20 to end

Rows 25-48 odd rows, Purl 20, Knit 20 to end

                    even rows, Knit 20, Purl 20 to end.

Continue in this manner until there are 7 rows of "squares"

The effect is that of a woven strips of knitting.

Cast off

Crochet around the entire blanket as follows.

Insert crochet hook into the beginning of any side of the blanket.  Pick up and single crochet in 4 knit or purl stitches, skip 5th stitch.  Repeat this until the corner.  Single crochet 3 stitches into the corner and repeat on all other edges.  

If you want to do more than one row of crochet, be sure to single crochet into all the first row (no skipping stiches) and once again, crochet 3 stitches into the corners.

Block if necessary and enjoy!

                  

I made these superhero capes for my 3 year-old grandson. He likes "save" everything and is always pretending to be a superhero. Grandpa made the patterns and I sewed the logos onto the center of each cape and then made the capes reversable. The Green Lantern and Batman are opposite each other and Superman and Spiderman are opposite each other. Some superheroes don't traditionally have capes, but Billy will love these and since Spiderman is his favorite, how could I not make him a Spiderman cape. Happy Birthday Billy.

Curtains for my toddler

I just came across curtains that I made about 26 years ago when my now 28-year-old daughter was 2. We had just changed her room from having a crib to having a twin sized bed. I bought a quilt kit to make that had Hollie Hobbie on it. I looked today, but I couldn't find the quilt. I remembered though what I did to make the curtains to match. The technique is old and I'm sure could be done with a computer program today, but then I had graph paper. So, I traced the design from the photo of the quilt on the box. It was about the size I wanted for the curtains. I traced it on graph paper and then colored it the colors I wanted to use in the counted cross stitch design you see here. I bought very fine counted cross stitch fabric and actually made the entire curtain from the fabric. I stitched the design over 4 squares. I also flipped the pattern for the facing design.

When I was done, my daughter had a cute matching bedroom design.

Way too long since last post

Well, it's been almost 3 months since I posted last. Secret Pal 10 came and went and while I privately acknowledged the final gift from my secret pal, I never did it publicly, until now.

What a great box of goodies. Thank you very much for being so good to me. I'm not soing secret pal 11, but I might do it again in the future. There's a lot of knitting talent out there and I'm proud to be one of you.

Where did the last two weeks go

Wow, it's June 1st already. May just few by. I got a nice surprise package in the mail yesterday from my secret pal. I know she lives in New Jersey, but not her name. Maybe by the end of June I'll know. Anyway, she send me all these great goodies. The 4 large balls of yard will be great for the hats I knit for the homeless http://eyevea.blogspot.com/2007/03/hats-for-homeless.html I think I can make 5 hats from the 4 balls of yarn. That's great!! Also, in the box was the yarn harlot's latest book, some chocolate, a hat and some unscented soap (scents make me sneeze). Thanks so much!! I forgot to mention the great hat from Maryland Sheep and Wool. It'll be a great hat to wear while kayaking in the sun.

odyssey

It's been awhile since I posted here. My husband, Paul, and I just got back from quite the adventure. My son, Ben, just graduated from the Border Patrol Academy in Artesia, New Mexico, and then moved to Laredo, TX. So, Paul and I drove to Virginia where my son has been living with his wife and son. We helped Sarah (Ben's wife) finish packing up their belongings and loaded them onto a rented truck. Then we flew to Ben's graduation ceremony in New Mexico. Two days later we flew back to VA and then began the 3 day drive to Laredo. Paul and I were driving the truck, towing one of their cars, and Ben, Sarah, Billy, their dog and cat drove their other car. It took 2 very long days and 1 shorter day. Then we arrived at their new apartment and unloaded the truck, brought the truck back to the rental location and went to dinner (9 p.m.). This morning Paul and I flew back home to CT. This all took place over the last 9 days. Quite the adventure, like I said. Along the way I managed to knit 11 hats for the homeless (see directions from earlier posts). I'll put up some pictures soon.

secret pal socks

I got this fun yarn from my secret pal. I knitted it into socks. Aren't they cute?

contest winner!

Wow, so I tied for 1st place in the secret pal 10 contest #2. It's always fun to win things. I'm re-disovering knitting socks, so the sock yarn is a fitting prize. Thanks, secret pal hostess Robin (with an i).

Worldwide yarn search

About 4 years ago, I bought 10 balls of Rifflessi Yarn made by Filati Bertagna, at WEBS in Northampton, MA. I go to WEBS each year between Christmas and New Years when they have great sales. I always buy too much yarn and never really have a plan for it.

About 3 months ago, I decided it was time to use this Rifflessi yarn. I chose a sweater pattern that should have worked with the amount of yarn I had, but I was wrong. I was making a cardigan and got the entire body done and probably had enough yarn for one sleeve, but definitely not enough for the other sleeve.

The hunt was on. I first contacted WEBS to see if perhaps they still had a ball or two, but they haven’t carried the yarn since 2003 (the year I bought it). I wrote to Filati Bertagna in Italy to see if perhaps they might have some or know who would. It seems they stopped making the yarn in 2001. I thought my long-sleeved sweater was doomed to become a vest. They suggested that I contact the U.S. distributor (Plymouth) to see if they could tell me which yarn stores they sold the yarn to. So, I contacted Plymouth and they told me that their records don’t go back that far, so they couldn’t tell me which stores might still have some of the yarn.

On the Plymouth site, there is a list of yarn stores, some with websites, so I wrote to all of those (about 20 or so) in desperate hope that someone might still have a few balls of this yarn. The yarn comes in about 15 colors, so even if I found some yarn, I was losing hope that it would be in the right colorway that I required. What I got in return were a bunch of very nicely phrased, negative responses from yarn storeowners, and some more suggestions of how I might find the yarn.

Awhile back I had some luck finding a specific yarn on ebay. So, my hunt continued. There was one listing for Riflessi yarn, but it was in solid colors. I wrote to the seller, anyway, to see if he/she might have other colors, but she didn’t.

So, I “googled” Riflessi to see what came up. I found an expired ebay listing for a color 6056 (pinks and purples) I needed 6054 which is jeweltones. So close and yet so far. And a yarn store in Australia who was selling light blue (also not what I was looking for). When I clicked on the expired ebay listing, nothing came up, but when I clicked on the “cached” page, I could see the listing and then found the seller’s email address. I wrote to that ebay seller and to the store in Australia. No luck with Australia, but about 3 weeks later the seller of the expired ebay listing wrote back and actually had 8 balls of the yarn I was looking for! Because the yarn has so many colors in it, I wasn’t too worried about the dye lot, but as it turns out, it was even the same dye lot.

I asked the woman to put the yarn up on ebay and I bought it, the minute it was listed. I also bought the woman’s pinks and purples that hadn’t sold when she first had it listed. I do really like the yarn.

So, I guess, this qualifies as a worldwide search since I needed to contact people in Australia and Italy as well as several people in this country. But now my sweater will be getting sleeves and I’m a happy knitter.

Thank you to my secret pal

My secret pal sent me a great package over the weekend. It had a cherry theme. There are dishtowels with cherries on them, a "tea for one" pot and cup with cherries, two kinds of cherry candy (yum!) and some great sock yarn (no cherries), that I've already starting knitting with. This secret pal thing is fun! Thank you secret pal.