Ida, Warm & Wonderful

Ida is now a warm and wonderful blanket.  All of her tails are safely tucked away and she is ready to be a work horse of warmth. 

 When stretched out it is a joy to see those bands of color and texture just as I first imagined them.  I know that this scheme might not be to everyone's taste.   But that is the joy of designing and making something that is unique to you.  Only you need to be pleased.  And I am quite pleased by the end result.

When tossed about, Ida tends to look like any other striped blanket/afghan/throw. 

Those three terms always mystify me.  What is the difference?  Is a blanket larger than an afghan?  When does a throw become so large that it ceases to be a throw and becomes something else?  Please do not question my sanity, for I have pondered this very issue and come up with no answer.

Here she is in the yarn studio.  That bit of piecework in the background is a stretched quilt top that never got completed.  It is there to remind me that while I understand the basics of many artistic crafts, I am not the master of them all.  I am, however, the master of this Ida blanket.

The alternating knit and crochet bands of Ida, the blanket, just might be the most significant blending of my mother's (Ida Mae) crochet skill and my knitting ability.  I like to think that she is somewhere up above, smiling that I do still crochet and pleased that this work was accomplished with her wooden crochet hook. 

And I am smiling as well.

Home Stretch

Call me a woman ahead of her time.  Truly.  The 2014 blanket is in the home stretch.  The edging started today.  It took a lot of thinking to decide how best to end this wad of warmth.  Not the first part of the thinking; that was easy.

Because of the construction and changing of stitches without regard to that five letter word [gauge] the edges needed to be harmonized with good old single crochet.  Working single crochet around the whole thing went a long way toward straightening out the dips where knit met crochet and the curly edge of the Tunisian Simple Stitch.

Digression for an observation:  I often forget that Tunisian crochet curls in the same way that knit stockinette curls.  I have to remember that because normally I use crochet to combat curling.  Oh, well. 

The quandary became what to do after the single crochet. It needed to be easy to work in the wool boucle I was determined to use and a stitch pattern that worked up flawlessly because frogging  boucle is not a thing that makes one happy.  I knew  this final edging would be worked with Mama's crochet hook.  After all, the whole point of the Ida blanket is to use Ida Mae's crochet hook and blend in my love of knitting. 

Owing to my total disregard of gauge, the blanket has stretches of wonkiness.  Nothing more than two or three inches in a spot.  But there are a few places that need to pull in a bit.  What, I asked myself, stretches and contracts?  Crochet post work!

That's right.  The whole edging is being worked in basic front post/back post crochet so that it adjusts to the blips in the stitches.  Round and round I go.  There is almost 800 yards of the super wash boucle, so the border will take some time.  I'm happy, and Ida Mae is happy.

F-UFO Sighting

In the far reaches of darkness it flashed.  A dull light color amidst the dark.  What could it be?  It was obviously larger than a dropped stitch.  Was it a forgotten donation?  A gift that did not get mailed? 

With some trepidation, I reached my hand into the deep dark forgotten space and gently grabbed the wad o' stuff.  A F-UFO.  Forgotten UnFinished Object.  Yes, I had totally forgotten that this crochet blanket even existed. 

Sixty minutes.  A short hour of time.  That is all that it took to Remember and Finish the Object.

 Here it is.  A mirror image bit of crochet that results in a baby blanket.  There is not much of a real pattern.  It is just double crochet shells worked in three colors.

In the second photo, the arrow points to the middle strip where the "mirror" work begins.  The arrow shows the starting chain.  First, rows are worked in sequence from the chain.   Then the exact same "mirror" sequence is worked beginning from the base of that starting chain. 

No, it isn't rocket science.

No, it isn't an award worthy pattern.

No, it doesn't build lots of new connections in an aging brain.

But it is a sweet and useful baby blanket that deserves love.

And it is finished!

Warm and Beautiful - It's done

The Collinette throw is totally done. It is perfect. Definitely worth blowing the budget on this one.

The single crochet edge. Hides a lot of sin.

On the bed. I love the way it perks up the gold color scheme. Yep, looks like a bedroom from the south. Cherry spool posts and all. But hey, at least the lamps are electrified!And it even looks wonderful in the living room.