Showing posts with label knit blanket. Show all posts
Showing posts with label knit blanket. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

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.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

The Yarn That Binds - Connecting TSS To Knit Edges



The first afghan/blanket that I ever made was some forty years ago.  Mama crocheted the granny squares.  I crochet squares using the "afghan stitch" which is now known as Tunisian Simple Stitch (TSS).  Mama sewed the whole thing together and off I went to my first dorm experience at Louisiana College.

TSS is quite popular (finally or once again.  I can't figure it out) and has many variants and extensions such that Tunisian Crochet is a genre unto itself.  I still consider it that old stitch from way back when.

TSS has made it into the 2014 blanket.  Oh, don't get started lecturing me about it still being 2013.  I am an artist.  I am whimsical.  If I want to work on the 2014 blanket in November of 2013, I can.  Just smile and nod and go with the flow.

Meet Ida.  She is the 2014 blanket of my own design and is sketched out in this post.  Because I am not Mama (Ida Mae), I avoid seams whenever possible.  Each section will be attached to the previous as it is worked. 

The first section is knit in seed stitch and all edges are slipped so as to create a chain that is easy to pick up.  Section 2 of Ida is TSS that is connected to Section 1 on the bind off edge and a slipped stitch edge.  It is very easy to accomplish. 

 Let's assume that you already know how to work TSS or you watched a video.  To connect TSS to a knit edge is quite easy.

1.  Work the TSS forward pass until ready to pick up the last loop.
2.  Pick up for the TSS stitch AND the back loop from the knit bind off or slipped edge.




3.  Yarn over and draw through both the knit edge loop and for the TSS  loop to create the last stitch of the TSS forward pass.






4.  Connection is made!
5.  Work the TSS reverse pass in the normal way. 

It is so easy.  Working through the back look on the knit edge creates a decorative twist where the different styles of yarn work meet. 

Can I get a Voila?

Monday, December 1, 2008

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.