Knit One, Owe One!

Having decided to undertake this blogging challenge, I find myself wondering if I actually have enough interesting to say to actually write something every day. And I don’t think I can get much mileage out of writing about how I don’t know what to write (even though that is what I am doing right now…)

But then I realised something. Life isn’t just about what I did today or yesterday. It is all informed by everything that went before. So retrospective blog posts are as valid as ‘today I did this’, and potentially more interesting as they are a way to reflect on and remember all the little things that brought me to the here and now.

As retrospectives go, this isn’t looking that far back; about a month ago I finished the knitting project I am most proud of to date; a baby blanket for one of the pairs of friends responsible for introducing me to my husband.

In terms of technical challenges I have tackled harder (specifically learning fair isle and then steeking it!) but this is probably the thing that I have put the most thought into designing and patience into knitting. I made it harder than it had to be too – top tip; treat double knit like fair isle and knit each colour from a different hand to avoid hours of untwisting balls of yarn! Although the effect of running both strands together in one hand is that you end up twisting the two just about every stitch, which gives a lovely dense fabric effect.

As may be obvious from the picture above, the parents of this particular baby are … a little geeky. No, I must be fair to them; they would describe themselves as huge geeks! They are also two of the loveliest people I know, and I owe them (and their Partners In Crime … you know who you are!) big time for a certain introduction. So I wanted to make something special that reflected their interests; cue ‘The World’s Geekiest Baby Blanket’!

I can take credit for the colour combinations and being too lazy to sew together twenty four squares, resulting in the  (I think) rather nice seed stitch borders between the designs (as an aside – I love, love, love my Knit Pro interchangeable circular needles!) The squares themselves, however, came from a rather fabulous website with the amazing name Lattes and Llamas (http://lattesandllamas.com). specifically from their 2014 and 2016 Geek Along (GAL) designs.

For those not in the know; the GAL is a variant on the (only slightly) better known KAL, or Knit Along,  in which a pattern is released in stages over time and participants have to, well, knit along with the designer as the instructions come out. I’ve never actually done one – I’m a bit too much of a control freak and like have a look at a whole pattern before I start something. But the archived GAL squares were a boon for me, allowing me to pick and choose a set of images that suited the recipients of this present perfectly.

There is a funny story associated with this blanket.

When I heard my friends were expecting a baby, I got super excited and decided I had to knit them something awesome. So I went looking, found Lattes and Llamas, picked my designs, ordered yarn and got cracking. After I’d been working on this blanket for about 4 weeks, I idly commented to my husband that I’d got myself in for an awful lot of work, since I would need to make something of equal distinction for the previously mentioned Partners In Crime if they were to reproduce.

The very next day (this is not hyperbole, I promise!) we heard from the second couple who introduced us, announcing … that they were expecting too! Which was wonderful, of course, but left me with a problem… how do I follow up on The World’s Geekiest Baby Blanket?

Well, I’m afraid I’ll have to leave you wondering about that, since the second blanket is not yet complete, and I want it to remain at least partly a surprise. Watch this space (if you care to)!