The Need to Knit

One must knit.
There are those of you who understand this concept and do not hesitate to agree.

One must knit.
In fact, I would hazard to say that most folks who follow a knitting blog, do so because they must knit. (That leaves room for those of who who just support me no matter what I do and those who love my writing..hahahaha.)

One must knit.
I must knit. Even if it means the knitting is sometimes painful. In this case, it is not a physical pain. It is a mental one. I am knitting an afghan/wrap. Very simple stockinette pattern. It's all stockinette. Except every fourth row I put in sequins at the beginning and the end of the row. So there's a band of sequins then plain stockinette and then sequins. This is after a few rows of sequins all the way across.

I don't need to put a photo there, do I? You get it. You can imagine how it's going to look. Well, you can if I tell you the color is kinda rust orange. I believed the yarn is Burnt Pumpkin and the sequins are a close copper color. When it's done there will be a rectangle with sequins on all sides and a clear stockinette middle. It should be very nice.

My stitches have never looked better. When stockinette is the main pattern, it's important the stitches look nice and even because it's the canvas. I was admiring my stitches last night. I was saying to myself they looked nice and smooth and really professional. I was complimenting myself on my improving in my craft.

It's going to be lovely with the fall color and the shiny sequins.
Assuming I haven't died of boredom.

Did I write that out loud? I believe I did. Do you know the cause of the boredom? It's not that it's stockinette because it's a four row repeat and you have to pay attention to the placement of the sequins because it's not the same: the placement starts on the 3rd stitch on one row and on the 6th (so I guess it's an 8 row repeat) but it can go wrong. That's not the source of the problem.

It's the needle size. I'm using size 9. Relatively small for an afghan with one stitch. It will be stunning when it's done but it's going to take a lot of rows with that size of needle. It's an afghan after all. The pattern called for it to be a short throw - but come on, it needed to be bigger. I couldn't stop at the 36 inches or the 500 sequins it calls for. No, It must be at least in the 50 inches range and it must have 750 sequins at least. (Which is why I changed the pattern from adding sequins every 6th row to every 4th row.)

Don't know why I didn't change the needle size while I was changing everything else. But I didn't and I'm too far to go back and though I think I have been working on this for a little more than a week, it's already playing with my mind. Don't suggest putting it down and working on something else - I have to get through it or else the effort I've already put in will go wasted.

Sigh.

I feel better just getting it out. Now I won't carry thing vibe with me to the project and it won't feel my little outburst and snag or something. It really does look nice and it will be stunning. We just have to make it through this little stone in the road. But we will because sometimes you have to go through these things to get to the other side. And it's worth getting to the other side.

Because one must knit.
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When Is An Afghan Not An Afghan - con't

Remember a while back I knit all these squares to make an afghan and when I started to pull it together, it didn't work? I made two of those squares into a pillow, but I still have plenty of squares left and now some of them have become this kiddie scarf! There are still enough squares to make a matching hat and possibly mittens.

But here is the Take A Ribbing scarf from "Getting Started Knitting" I couldn't tell you how many colors are in it, but it's made from the Herschnerr's Chunky weight yarn which is really yummy to me. (I wouldn't know what to do with yarn that actually cost more than $7 a skein!) It's a nice yarn with lots of colors (obviously) and very lush. It's the shipping charges that kills the buzz for me. I wait until they have free shipping which they do a couple of times a year and then I buy a bunch of it.

If I get the chance, I will try and whip up a hat or mittens to go with it but the scarf will go on sale at the bazaar next month.

The Knitter's Restaurant -Color Block Afghan

It seems like it took forever for this afghan to be done and when i finally laid it out - it's huge! This is draped over the dog's cubby hole with more to spare!

This was a very simple design and was a way to use up a whole bunch of yarn! This is mostly done in Caron By the Pound, but there's a few Red Heart and Herschnerr's in there somewhere.

Basically, it's six strips of seven blocks in a stockinette rib of 46 rows per color; 33 stitches per strip. I used the cream as the main color then just placed about seven other colors in a tote bag and pulled them out at random. I used size 8 needles.

It's fluffy, soft and warm. It is certainly colorful. It reminds me of the Twister game - though this would be very hard to play it on!

If you need to follow a pattern; the one which inspired this afghan is here.
It uses only three colors and is way smaller, but is a nice, novice pattern that produces a very nice result. You can follow it to the letter, of course, or just get crazy and do your own thing!

This will be placed in the completed project bag and held until the November craft sale.