Translated.
This summer, my family and I moved out. Not far away, but still just enough to have to pack all our possessions in order to change their homes. Making boxes, it also requires sorting and you know as well as me that when we attack our stocks of wool, it can take a long time!
Of course, there were the projects in progress, the almost completed, the abandoned, the precious skeins that do not yet have a specific project assigned but that I keep just for the right moment ... But there was also a small pile of leftovers. Acrylic remains brought back from a workshop, leftover mixtures that were used to make models for the store, ordered samples from suppliers.
All these remains were never going to become a project in themselves, but by joining forces, they could certainly turn into the BEST softie in the world!
For collectors and lovers of leftovers like me, here are some technical information that could guide you if you want to wrap yourself in a unique blanket this winter.
Needles used: 12mm iinterchangeable circular on a 60" cable / 150 cm.
Wool used: At the risk of repeating myself, I used leftovers. Some balls were whole (I noted it in the list below, to give you an idea of how much to do a given section), others not. I didn't weigh the incomplete balls before I started, but I used them all to the end. Some were of unknown origin and composition too.
- Atlas 100% acrylic: Burgundy, Off-white, taupe, Violet (complete ball) and Black
- 100% acrylic favoriteIn: Charcoal and Black
- Wool at the bottomA small remnant of yellow
- A small remnant of Merino a colour that is no longer available (steel grey)
- Roving grey (a full ball)
- The others are samples or unidentified remains that come from I don't know where :)
In all, I used almost 1kg of wool and various yarns.
Number of stitches mounted: I put together 120 stitches and knitted until I had no yarn left. The end result is immense. The cover is 130 cm wide and 180 cm long. The good news is that I may be lucky enough to have a little bit to hide my knees when the whole family is huddled underneath to watch TV!
I didn't break my head to find an interesting point. Those who know me a little know that I am a FAN FINIE of the foam dot and that was the perfect point for a fluffy knit like this!
I didn't follow a pattern or plan for the order of colors. These are all colors that I like so I knew that in the end, the result would please me.
I paid a little attention to the alternating wire sizes. In general, I knitted them simple, but I doubled the finer (like low wool and another gray fingering size). So I tried to vary the thinnest and the biggest, as well as the tighter and looser twists in order to have an alternation of interesting textures.
I made some thinner scratches, others wider, again to have pleasant visual variations.
I wanted to make a border a little distinct, to give it a more "finished" look and I was inspired by the i-cord border that Stephen West uses in his "GSquish Blanket arter"so I decided to do the same thing. I am very satisfied with the result.
In the end, it took me almost 1 month to complete my coverage, but you guessed that it is a project on which I worked only in the evenings in front of the TV, taking ALL the place on the couch (and in front, and next...) It's not quite the kind of project you can easily carry around the subway ;)
When i was done, I gave him a nice bath. Sure, all this acrylic doesn't require a "real" blockage like natural fibers, but there's still a bit of wool scattered around it and, anyway, I always wash ALL my knits when they're finished. I do it for a number of reasons.
First, for my personal comfort: I have sensitive skin, so I always wash everything before wearing it for the first time. More than that though, these balls of wool have been dyed, spun, twisted, packed, transported and handled by I don't know how many pairs of hands and under what conditions. I dragged my knitting to the ground, and dragged the balls left and right... All this, it deserves a little bath!
Moreover, even if it is acrylic, I still think that a small wash and a small blockage, it puts you back a mesh!
In this case, it's a pretty huge thing so I went in the simple and effective way:
- Washing in a delicate lying front washer, warm-cold water, with an Eucalan wool soap cap. I did a short spin cycle to avoid shoving it too much.
- I laid the blanket on a house dryer, as flat as possible. It was folded in half so I had to turn it around half-drying to speed up the process.
That's it! That's all.
After an intense wire-reuniting session (the least pleasant part of the exercise, we get along!) I can FINALLY use it to envelop me with happiness!
