Over the weekend I finished up the main blanket, creating a neat square from all the trapezoids and triangles. I’d used up every scrap of rainbow yarn (and had to patch in some blue and orange to fill out the last rainbow shapes) and weighed out the remaining orange and blue at only 44g. Now, I started with 300g of yarn, so this might seem like a decent bit. But when working outwards from the middle, it’s critical to remember that each new inch in diameter or width takes more yarn than the previous one.
Some quick math to calculate how many grams of yarn to every 10sq inches, and how many more square inches in fabric I’d created by adding 2inches to the width (one each side) and it was clear that I wouldn’t be adding more shapes – it was time for the border.
I switched from my short pair of straights to two circular needles of the same size. I figured any small changes in gauge by switching needles wouldn’t hurt much on a border for a mini blanket. And I didn’t notice much in the end. I did choose to keep the garter theme, and instead of going in a round and switching between knit and purl, I’ve actually knit back and forth. I’ll have a small seam at one corner.
My math was pretty spot on – I completed just about one inch and bound off without any yarn chicken. I have 6grams of yarn left. I wanted to bind off on the right side, and I don’t think I could have completed two more rows with that – probably just one more.
I’m fairly pleased with the finished result. It’s bright and fun. I realized after the first round or so that two triangles or two trapezoids took up just about one repeat of the rainbow progression, and used that knowledge to create the pattern outward of consistent rainbow colors with the orange-red-purple-blue and blue-green-yellow-orange shapes. The final corner triangles are where I had to add in some extra blue and orange as I only had one red-purple section left which I split in half to cover the two corners.
Which leads to the title of the post: the knitting is done. BUT…
I still have a LOT of ends to weave in. And even though this is meant for the cats, I can’t cut corners and leave them hanging. The cats would definitely chew at them leading to anything from holes in the blanket to vet trips for swallowed yarn.
I would definitely recommend this yarn though, based on my experience so far. It’s West Yorkshire Spinners “Colour Lab DK”, a British wool yarn. I bought it through Caledonian Wool Co and it’s a nice worsted spun yarn, but with plenty of bounce from the springy British wools which must have been used. It was easy to knit and didn’t split on me much. I’m sure it’ll have some pilling eventually, but I don’t think it’ll be prone to it based on how the blanket looks now, especially the central octagon which I frogged and reknit a few times. I think it was moderately priced as well. I’d definitely consider using it again, but maybe I’ll wait to see how it survives a few months at the mercy of two cats first!
And then I’m REALLY going to need to get on this blocking thing. The blocking pile is starting to get out of control.
One last note: you can probably observe that the color tones in the photos above scream “bad artificial lighting”. Now, it’s true that I didn’t try very hard either while taking the photo or in edits afterwards. But these are taken in my office with the light on AND in the natural light from the window during “full” daylight. That’s as good as the natural lighting gets most days this year. If I’m lucky we’ll randomly get about 15min of good sunlight when we can turn off the lights in the main room (faces south) but never in the office. And almost never when I’m in a good place to drag out all my knits for photos. Sorry folks. I promise I do try harder for things like the felt paintings where the subtle colors are more important.
11 more days to midwinter and when the sun starts creeping back.