Am I Crazy?

Should I just stop now before it's too late? 

I want a big, wooly blanket for my couch. Well, when I buy a couch.

I don't have one yet. But when I get a couch, I want a big, wool blanket tossed on the back of it.

And I really, really want it to be wool, not acrylic.

I bought some Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool and started on this sample in the round.

The blanket is very simple but pretty.

The red stitch marker marks the beginning of the round. Barely noticeable. After blocking it should all blend in.

It's worked in the round, center out in alternating groups of 4 knit rows and 4 purl rows.

Good mindless knitting. Perfect for working on while I'm reading or doing other things.

It's soft and squishy and has that soothing wool smell to it. So far I love it.

But those nagging thoughts keep popping up in my head.

For one, if I keep going to full size like I planned, this thing is going to be heavy.

I want it to be big enough to fully snuggle under so it has to be at least 72 inches wide.

I already know that a blanket that size worked in the round is going to make me crazy toward the end.

I have considered working in blocks approximately 20 inches wide and seaming them together.

I figure if I end of a purl ridge and then work one round of knit stitches I could kitchner the stitches to the next block and it would all blend in.

That would solve the problem of working a big, heavy blanket in the round. But I keep thinking the real problem here is the fact that Fisherman's Wool is labeled as "Perfect for Felting."

I love Fisherman's Wool. I love the smell. I love the softness after it's washed. And I love how large the skeins are. This sample is already at 14 inches and I am barely halfway through the first skein.

But I really feel like the felting thing is going to come back to bite me.

I am knitting it at a firm gauge to make it less likely to felt. I'm knitting at 6sts/in. The ballband is labeled at 4sts/in.

Even so, realistically, there is no way I can hand wash this thing. It's going to be way too big and too heavy to wash in the bathtub.

And where would I lay it to dry?

Eventually I am going to have to throw this beast in the washing machine to clean it.

Did I mention I have 3 cats? Yeah, I'd also like to toss it into the dryer to get the cat hair off of it.

I know this seems crazy. I was planned on knitting it extra big to account for a little bit of felting and shrinkage. If I was it on delicate and dry it on Fluff could I get away with it?

I'm thinking I will finish this ball off and see what happens when I wash it gently in the machine.

I Was Looking Right At It

I'm a big fan of mindless knitting. I have an attention problem so I can't knit anything too complex without extreme effort. Even though I know I have trouble paying attention, I still find myself shocked when I do something so stupid.

Isn't is amazing how far into a project you can be before noticing a giant, in-your-face, how-can-you-not-see-me error?

I like shawls. I usually knit simple triangle or heart shaped shawls in simple stitches. This time I decided to mix it up a little. Mistake number 1. Instead of working the usual triangle shape, top down, I thought let's work the triangle back-and-forth, working top up. After working a garter stitch triangle back and forth I planned to add a simple YO, K2tog edging.

The triangle part started out just fine.

It was going well... K2, YO, knit to last 2 sts, YO, K2, next row Knit, repeat.

About half way up the triangle I think I started doing double increases on each edge because it started to take on more of a heart shape. But it was still fine.

When I was around half way through the ball of yarn I began the edging. A very simple YO, K2tog.

I only have a little bit of knitting time every day so I spent weeks working on this. Literally. Weeks went by without my having a clue what I was doing.

Some of you have already caught it and are laughing the sympathy laugh right now.

I was almost to the end of the ball and was trying to estimate how much yardage I used on each round so I could figure out exactly when to begin binding off.

And then I finally saw it. 

I had been knitting the edging onto the neck edge instead of the bottom edge of the shawl. There was no way to turn this into a design element. It had to be ripped out.

Off to the frog pond it goes.

Damn You Auto Correct

I was making a reminder to myself to blog about the pile of yarn that I keep knitting over and over again.

When I wrote the word 'reknit' auto correct changed it to 'eek it.'

How does that make more sense than 'reknit'? How does that make any sense at all?

Knit Picks is a Slow Learner

KP Foolishly Attempts to Silence Angry Knitters by Blocking Posts to KP's Facebook Page

As if that would work.

n00bs

After the blowup on Ravelry, Facebook, Twitter and Reddit about the security breach, Knit Picks responds by trying to block knitters from posting to their Facebook page.

They removed the post box so you can't write directly to the page. They also modified it so you can no longer click on the drop down box and select "Posts by Others."

What you can do is reply to a post of theirs, which may actually be more visable than if you posted directly. When you post directly to a Page is gets tucked away in a little box in the upper right hand corner of the feed. But when you reply to a post it is just...there... visable in the middle of the page for all to see.

I haven't tested it out but I suspect the tagging should also still be working.

If you're interested in following the story there is a new Facebook page for victims of the Knit Picks breach.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Knitpicks-Breach-Victims/336035513164460

Also some info on their blog:  http://kaycie51782.wordpress.com/