The next blanket

 

The next blanket, #174, is red again.  I do have a lot of red yarn.  I quite like it, particularly together with beige and brown as in this blanket.

Some 18 months ago I started knitting thicker blankets - combining yarns to aran rather than to DK weight.  It works well.  I have stopped classifying yarns according to standard weights; I use thicker yarns singly and combine thinner ones two, three or four to get the required thickness.

With the last few blankets I have made another change.  I have reduced the number of yarns used in a blanket.  This was because I got tired of a particular yarn lasting for years - some eight or ten years.  If I use more per blanket I will finish them sooner.  There is an unexpected consequence.  Stripes become more pronounced.  In blanket #173 there are clearly brown and green stripes.  In itself this does not matter, but I have to take more care when I decide the order.  Before it was done randomly.  I do miss the randomless, but otherwise I like it.

For this blanket I unravelled a sleeveless pullover, grey with two red cables.  The cables have been done as fairisle rather than intarsia, and the red shows through in between the cables.  Otherwise it is nicely knitted, and the yarn is lovely.  I suspect it is Debbie Bliss Rialto 4 ply.

The other garment was one I knitted myself.  I wrote about it here.  I have worn it a lot, but fashions have changed, and now it has gone.  The rust cotton yarn, Jaeger Pure Cotton, disappears in the blanket, and it adds nice texture.