"In the rhythm of the needles, there is music for the soul."

I wish I could have taken pictures of my progress during this process, but... well, they would have been very boring pictures. Anyway, this is my big rush knit: a king sized wedding blanket in one month. Yes, one month.

Done, as most things are right now, on my trusty Ultimate Sweater Machine, because let's face it: I so wasn't hand knitting this in a month. It was made in three panels knitted to 100 inches long. Each panel was about 35-40 inches wide, because I was trying to make it fit the size of a king-size flat sheet - which is very big.

The color was chosen by the bride, a lovely lilac, and knitted in Caron's Simply Soft yarn. I do love to work with this yarn - completely washable, and so incredibly soft!

The date of the wedding was worked into the blanket in reverse stockinette stitch, to make it a little bit special.

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Here we have two recent afghans, both donated as auction items to support Bikers Against Animal Cruelty.

Both were knitted on my Ultimate Sweater machine, about 160 needles across (aka, 160 stitches for hand knitters). The first is done with the 4 plate, so about a 12-15 needle size, in stockinette stitch. It's done with a boucle yarn, so it's kinda 'bumpy' but it's a nicely textured acrylic/nylon mix that can go in the washer. It's also self striping. The thing I like about this yarn, besides being easy to care for and very soft, is that you can't tell the afghan is Stockinette stitch.

By the end, I think it came out to be about 3 1/2 by 5 1/2 feet with just one skien of yarn.

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The second one was done with the Caron 1 pound yarn (it took 2 skiens, and there was a little left over, but not much). It was done in stockinette stitch on my USM. About 8 inches into each side I did 4 rows of reverse stockinette stitch, just to make it not so plain. The fringe really adds something to this blanket - it's the first time I've done fringe, and it looks great!

This blanket, without measuring the fringe, ended up about 4'x6'.

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Ah, the famous Swanky Bag. At least, famous to those who talk to Swanky, like many of the people who attended the St. Louis Wrockstock this past year.

This one was hand knitted, about 35 stitches across, with the middle 25 in stockinette and the 5 on each side in seed stitch (k1, p1 repeats). The last 3 rows I did completely in seed stitch, so that the edges of the flap wouldn't curl.

Once it was the proper length, I used black yarn to write out SWANKY in big letters on the flap. I made the pocket and fitted the zipper to fall just under where the flap began. The fabric lining was pinned to the bag, the magnetic closures were sewn to the fabric by hand, and then the fabric lining was sewn to the bag (by machine, because I wanted it to look good).

The strap was also knitted, and done in seed stitch as well. This was attached to the bag with a ton of sewing machine stitching, to make sure it stayed on. Of course, the strap required a knot in it because, being knitted, it stretched when anything was put in the bag, and so the strap became too long. Not a hardship for Swanky, who knotted it and went on her merry way with her new bag.

Pictures below the link:
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So, after what felt like far too long (though it was remarkably quick on the Ultimate Sweater Machine), I completed the baby blanket (back in May, but I'm only getting the opportunity to post this now). It's mostly done in stockinette stitch.

It is made of Caron Simply Soft in Sage Green, Cream, and Autumn Red (or something like that), Lion Brand Pound of Love Light Blue, Lion Brand Baby Soft in Lemon Drop (which I didn't like as much as the others - it was sportweight instead of worsted weight like the rest, so it looked a bit thin), and Red Heart Soft Yarn in Tangerine.

The stripes do make sense if you look at them long enough. Green was knitted for 5 rows each time, Blue and Yellow four rows, Red and Cream three rows, and Orange two rows (it was made to match the Target Tiddliwinks Safari Baby bedding collection [found here], so the number of rows was determined by how often the color appeared in the bedding collection).

Then the stripes were in a repeating pattern of 15 (or 16, or something close to that. I didn't want an obvious repeat).

As if that wasn't enough, every 8 rows I reversed 1 stitch every 7 stitches, to give it a little texture.

See the pictures below the link:

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Edited 11-15-08: The official repeat was blue, green, yellow, red, cream, green, orange, blue, cream, green, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, cream, red, orange - a repeat of 18. I also had a note to end on blue, because I was beginning on blue.

So, I'm working on knitting a baby blanket for one of my mom's co-workers, who is due to give birth to a boy in early May (I'm guessing, since that's when the baby blanket is due).

Since I have absolutely no time to knit said blanket by hand, I decide to machine knit said blanket. The pattern is for the Basketweave Baby Blanket, which was a pattern designed for the machine I bought. I got the idea for striping it like I did from the Wild Stripes Baby Blanket. I didn't like the idea of backing it, though, so all four edges will be the checkerboard pattern of 4 knit, 4 perl.

The picture could be a bit brighter, but I forgot to turn the flash on my new camera. Still, the colors are fairly accurate. I'll post another pic when I finish it, which with luck will be tonight.



Also, I watched the original Stargate movie... back in March. I immediately had to know what happened to Daniel (because he is so pretty), so I went out and bought Season 1 of Stargate SG-1. Since the writers of the show are very darned good at writing season-ending cliff hangers, as soon as I watched the entire season I had to buy the entire 10 season set which arrived at my house April 2. My current episode count: Season 3 Episode 8. I think I'll track this.

Have you ever been sitting at your laptop, and not wanted to get up to pee, even knowing the laptop can go with you to the bathroom?

Also, I'm officially declaring it spring. The crickets might have something to do with that decision.

You know the drill, but this one is a bit easier...Place an X by all things you've done, or remove the X from the ones you have not... In your entire life! Then send it to friends (including me).
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