Thursday, September 2, 2010

Make New Friends...

...but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold!

Was anyone else a Girl Scout? Did you have to sing that song every single meeting, too? The wretched Beatles medley after John Lennon was assassinated was almost a relief.

Here is proof that the FO parade was not just an excuse to cover the fact that I haven't been knitting. I have indeed been knitting. Here is the current state of the Noro Log Cabin blanket:

Yes, that is all the squares, edged and grafted together!

And here is the yarn I have left:

Although it looks like a fair amount, my calculations indicate that there is not enough to do the matching border I intended. My calculations consist of considering that it's taken me six and a half balls so far. There are three long strips and two short strips. I have two and a half balls left, and to do a matching border would mean knitting a bit more than two long strips and two short strips. Even in my math-resistant world, this equals not enough yarn.

I am taking suggestions. This yarn is discontinued and utterly unavailable (I've looked). It is impossible to match, being a wool/cotton/nylon baby boucle in plum (I've tried). So my options are to make a smaller sort of border, like maybe an applied I-cord (god save me), or to pick an entirely different yarn for the border. I am leaning toward the narrower border, but I'd love to hear other options. I have spent too long on this to give up now, no matter how tempting it may seem at the moment.

And this is Morgaine, which is what I am calling my version of this pattern--the one I didn't order because it was only available by snail mail and I am not that patient.

Instead, I just used the photo as a guide. And I've saved about as much time as you save when you get caught speeding and spend half an hour exchanging pleasantries with the Highway Patrol. I have ripped almost as much as I have knitted. Natch. But I think I have it worked out now. I had to set it aside for a couple of days when I ripped the sleeve cap for the second time, but I'm reasonably happy with the current version of the cap and I think it will end up perfect after blocking.
This yarn is Ultra Alpaca, so it will undoubtedly grow like crazy in length when it hits water. I am counting on it, in fact, since I deliberately shortened all my measurements to accommodate this growth. (Now watch; this will end up being the only non-growing alpaca in history.)

I gave it a hood, which will benefit from a good blocking.

I also did a shirttail-esque short row hem, which is longer in the back than the front. I was thinking sort of a medieval cloak shape. The added advantage is that it covers my butt without hanging to my knees in the front.

These are my only "real" WIPs right now. "Real" WIPs are those which stand a chance of being finished in the near future, as opposed to the other sort of WIPs, which are just UFOs in denial. (We won't discuss how many of those I have floating around.)

And you know what that means, don't you? It means I will be picking a new project in the next few days! Ah, the possibilities...

12 comments:

Unknown said...

You know that silver and gold song? Well, I had a professor who made us sing in (in a round none the less) in one of my GRADUATE courses last week. Is that what I'm spending all that money for?

sophanne said...

I really love that log cabin. The only thing that comes to mind is using a dark border for a sort of stained glass-esque look. I love that log cabin.

Walden said...

I know it would be a pain, but I like your idea of making a thin border with the remaining yarn. I think it will tie in better.

Love the top, it's looking quite comfortable!

sheep#100 said...

Clever with the "shirt-tail"!

5elementknitr said...

When I did my never-ending blanket, I took what was left of the yarn and single-crocheted around and around the edge until I ran out. I kept track of the beginning of the rounds and when I ran out half way through a round, I backed out the stitches to the beg of that round and tied off. Easy Peasy.

Your blanket is SO lovely and so is your sweater!

Khalila said...

I like a reverse single crochet for blanket borders. I've done it several times and it always looks good. I think it's also called a crab stitch. I think you have enough yarn to do one.

Romi said...

IMHO, you should do as wide a border as you can with that yarn and then frame the whole thing with black or a very dark mahogany brown.

It looks great!

pdxknitterati/MicheleLB said...

Camp Fire Girl here. We sang the same song.

Thin border!

Margaret Law said...

"A circle is round and never ends, thats how long I want to be your friend" I believe that is the 2nd verse. (I'm a Brown Owl but did teach this to Sparks (5-6yr olds) when I was a sparks leader.
Thin border aounds great to me.Margaret.

k said...

Yay! Another Camp Fire Girl! Did you sell those mint cookies? I miss them. And I wish I hadn't tossed my beads.
I got nothin' on your border. Sorry.

Madam Butterfly said...

Very colorful blanket! I think this idea will work for my "Moroccan terrace". Good luck with the edging!
Thank you for you comment on my blog.

Life's a Stitch said...

I think my comment belongs up here. How'd that happen? ;-)