The next blanket, #158, was going to be white pink and yellow, but the Drops mohair introduced a shade of green as well. It was worth it, because it made the blanket so soft. Admittedly the much thicker pink mohair helped too. I attempted to use up some of the yellow yarns, too, and I succeeded to some degree, but there is still a lot left. It is a nice blanket, no jarring colours, thick and soft.
I unravelled a Marimekko cardigan. The pure wool yarn is so soft, and so easy to unravel. The shade is much too strong for this blanket, so it will have to wait for another one.
The other sweater was a man's alpaca sweater, brand name Sol. The yarn is nice. It is slightly awkward to knit with because it is too strands not plied together. This one was easy to unpick, too.
For this dark blanket, #157, I wanted to use up the cyclamen mohair wool. There is nothing wrong with it, except that it has been around for many years and it would be nice to see the end of it. The colour is too bright for many things. In the event, I didn't finish it this time. It will be around for several more blankets. So many of my blankets are ruined by me wanting to finish yarns. And by my compulsion to use up every little scrap of yarn. It is so difficult, if not impossible, to throw yarn away.
So I felt compelled to include this black blue thick-and-thin yarn that I obviously felt compelled to buy at some stage. It is so obviously acrylic, but something in me liked it nevertheless. It didn't work out so badly after all. The thick blue portions sort of fit in with the rest, and the black bits just blend. There is plenty more of this, but I don't think it will go into another blanket.
The first garment that I unravelled was this Marion Foale tunic in a mulberry colour. It was nicely knitted in pure wool DK, and the yarn came out beautifully after washing. The picture shows the stains on the front very well. I quite often come across Marion Foale garments. Some shops ask a lot for them, others are more reasonable. I am tempted by the ones in 4 ply wool, not so much by the ones in cotton.
The second garment was this handknitted cardigan in a purple 4 ply wool. It was very easy to unravel, totally unremarkable, and really the kind of yarn I want for my blankets.
The second blanket C10 is finished, using up all the remaining rust and yellow blocks. I joined them using double crochet, the same as for the first blanket. This time I wanted to do a double crochet stitch edging too, so I did several rows of rust and brown, since there was no more yellow yarn. I like the way it turned out.
I am not so happy about the shape of the blanket. I have long wanted to do a medallion arrangement of the blocks, but for that you need odd numbers of blocks both in the rows and the columns. I was pleased to see that here I had exactly enough blocks for a 9 by 13 arrangements. I did not stop to think that it would make a long narrow blanket until it was too late to change my mind. So I had to leave it, and the blanket is 1.55m by 1.05m. It would have been better shorter and wider. It used up 720gr of yarn.
So, overall it was extremely inexpensive enjoyable crochet. The end results were not that good.
In the absence of much knitting I thought I would show my knitting bags, all but one bought from charity shops.
This is my favourite. The colours are brown and yellow, and the fabric a 1950s pattern. It may even be an original piece of 1950s fabric. The large design has been arranged very attractively so that the front and back are different. It is lined with a yellow plain cotton, except for one side that has a zig-zag embroidered owl on an off white cotton. I like the way it is placed inside the bag, and the mischievous look of the owl. To think that somebody has gone to all the effort of making this and then giving it away.
The same applies to the second bag. This is much more professionally made, probably from a pattern. The workmanship is perfect. I am fairly sure that the fabric is Rowan, all three of them, designed by Kaffe Fassett. These kind of murky colours appeal to me.
The third is a Gudrun Sjöden tote bag. There were several of these for sale last summer, so the charity had probably been given them because they were from last year's collection, 2012. I chose the one I liked best. I would like to wear Gudrun Sjöden clothes, but not only are they too expensive but they are made for people taller than me. Occasionally you see them in charity shops.
The fourth is a Cox and Cox toilet bag made in flower patterned green velvet. I like the design and the velvet makes it nice to the touch. Also, the lining is in the green cotton and not in plastic. This is my bus knitting bag. Fastening the zip makes it very secure.
The last one I have shown before, my felted basket. It sits on the floor next to the sofa for easy reach.
I have finished my friend's sweater, so I can go back to where I was at the end of June. The pile of blankets to be finished has reached five by now, and I have cast on for a cardigan for myself. It is normal for me to take three months to knit a sweater. It is strange in a way, because I can knit a blanket in six weeks - four is my record. It takes longer now, because I do less knitting than I used to. The problem with garments is that the thinking takes time, and I have learnt that a hasty decision is a bad decision. The books say that you should adjust patterns to your body measurements, and that involves a lot of decisions. The books also say that you should work out all the measurements before you start, after you have knitted your tension square. Well, I prefer to start knitting and making decisions as I go along. So when I hit a problem I may put the knitting away for two, three, five, ten days while I decide what to do next. This is what takes the time. With blankets I cast on and knit knit knit until it is long enough. So simple.
My idea for blanket #156 was that it should be red and brown. Most of the red yarns in the store turned out to be thin ones, and there weren't that many darkish brown ones either, so the blanket is not very close to my idea. I like the way that it has turned out anyway, and I notice now that it is very similar to one of my previous ones - blanket #144 but that one included yellow. The colours blend quite well. Some 1960s Warriner teal DK begged to be included and it does not jar at all. The yarns that stand out are the apricot ones. I managed to exclude the more yellowish yarns - they will go into another blanket. I notice now that this blanket is very similar to one of my previous ones - blanket #144 but that one included yellow.
I meant to knit this in aran weight on 4.5 mm needles, but I had so few thicker yarns that it was not a good idea. Instead I knit on 4 mm needles, but combine DK yarns with a thin 4 ply. This works well, and I will probably continue doing it. In a way it frees me from deciding whether a yarn is 4 ply or DK - I can combine any yarns so that the end result is a suitable thickness.
I used to buy a lot of manufactured picture sweaters, and this is one of the last ones to be unravelled. It is a Planet woman's sweater with aran stitched diamonds. I bought it because I thought the pattern would provide suitable lengths of yarn. Not so, there are an awful lot of knots, so the lengths are unpredictably short. I like the yarn, a thick DK wool, several strands unplied. I am using two shades in this blanket, and both disappear.
The second to be unravelled was a hand knitted cardigan with a ruffle edge. It has been competently knitted, down to the ruffle being stitched along the button band. It looked like a Debbie Bliss pattern - she does tend to recycle her patterns in slightly different versions - and I found it in a Jaeger booklet in a charity shop. I didn't buy the booklet. I didn't associate DB with Jaeger. The yarn is lovely, a wool thin yarn. In the end I decided that the pink colour was wrong for this blanket, so I did not use it.
I used up several of my red yarns that I have saved as being too good for blankets. The Peter Gregory is a bright pure wool 4 ply in a one ounce ball; I have about six of these. The Edina Ronay is a Rowan silk wool blend, the cashmere is Jaeger. The Polworth wool is a New Zealand shetland type wool. The colour blends very well and it is nice. I have about six of these too, so it will last for many blankets. The rust yarn at the front is unlabelled, but it feels like silk. At the back is a cone of thin mohair yarn. According to the hand ticked Uppingham label inside the cone it is a mohair and acrylic/polyester blend. It is the same thickness as Rowan Kidsilk Haze, and it feels nearly as nice. It adds softness and a lovely halo to the blanket. I would be very pleased to come across more of this.
I am still knitting, and blanket #155 is proceeding. This is in DK weight, in pale colours. I have managed to restrict them to white, green and blue with some beige and greys. There are a few darker shades among them, but the truth is that I am running low on lighter yarns. In earlier blankets I tried to restrict the amount of white yarns, but now I use them for want of anything else. I don't want to go darker.
The other thing about this blanket - and I noticed this when I did other knitting in pure wool - is that there is not sufficient wool in it. There is more synthetic than I would like but to compensate there is alpaca, silk and mohair, and some nice cotton. So the blanket itself feels comfortable, but it does not have a woolly feel. Also, I am running low on double knitting weight yarns so there is more 4 ply doubled, and some of it is quite thin. Still, it is a nice blanket.
The first knitted garment that I unravelled is a zipped short sleeved cardigan in Rowan Cotton Glace. It is nicely knitted, and the zip is sewn in with care. Personally I find adding zips to knits too dangerous to attempt, too difficult to get right. The zip and the seams are sewn using sewing cotton. It was fiddly to cut, but I managed it without cutting the yarn unnecessarily. Otherwise it was easy to unravel.
I bought the second after I went to the Wool Show at Somerset House, in March I think. I was impressed watching the spinning, and being offered the chance to attempt using a spindle. But I am not going to learn to spin. There were samples of wool from different breeds of sheep, and I realised for the first time that the differences in the handspun wool that I find in charity shops, knitted or not knitted, does not depend on the spinner but on the breed of sheep. And handspun wool is so lovely that I decided to allow myself to buy garments knitted from handspun wool. This is the first and only one so far, since March.
The sweater is knitted in a lace twisted rib stitch, presumably to stop the rib from slanting. The wool is 4 ply weight, spun in 2 ply. I was disappointed that the kinks did not disappear after washing, but it is still nice. As it happened, I had it in mind for a different project, so I did not use it for this blanket.
This yarn brought a nice pale green colour to the blanket. I could not resist the wool because of the name - Cleckheaton - and because it is Australian. How wool travels. Without checking I will say that it is 80% wool 20% nylon, and it feels so nice. It was apparently intended for an adult sweater. I would say it is perfect for baby clothes.
My knitting is stagnating. I have just finished fastening the ends on blanket #154 and I have two, nearly three bus blankets to finish. I am in the middle of one knitted and one crochet cardigan, but if I wait to go back to them until I have finished all the blankets - and they will soon be four when I finish knitting #155 - when will that be? I also offered to reknit a sweater for a friend, and I have started but I have to put it aside because it is too hot to knit, and I want to start knitting for the winter. I feel stressed. I can only do one project at a time.
I seem to have a waiting list of blankets to be finished. I have finally - nine months after finishing the crochet of all the blocks - made time to join the blocks for blanket C10. This was very enjoyable bus crochet for over a year. When I got the blocks out again I realised that I had forgotten that the blocks were different sizes and that I would have to do two smaller blankets.
The first blanket consists of all the brown and the larger rust blocks. Again I joined them using a crochet slip stitch and I did the edging using one round of double crochet and one of crab stitch. I think it worked OK. I could have thought more about the arrangement of the blocks. The extra rust block might have been better placed in the opposite corner.
The result is a light blanket, 100 by 113 cms, a perfect size for a child. Personally I like the colours, although I can see that many would not. They come across as 1970s colours. I washed it in the machine without problems.
I really like the pattern that the decreases make and the texture that they give. The slip stitch join makes a ditch on the right side and I don't mind it at all.
Now I am fastening the ends of blanket #154 and I will finish it before going on to continue with the rest of the blocks for blanket C10.
I used up several of my red yarns that I have saved as being too good for blankets. The Peter Gregory is a bright pure wool 4 ply in a one ounce ball; I have about six of these. The Edina Ronay is a Rowan silk wool blend, the cashmere is Jaeger. The Polworth wool is a New Zealand shetland type wool. The colour blends very well and it is nice. I have about six of these too, so it will last for many blankets. The rust yarn at the front is unlabelled, but it feels like silk. At the back is a cone of thin mohair yarn. According to the hand ticked Uppingham label inside the cone it is a mohair and acrylic/polyester blend. It is the same thickness as Rowan Kidsilk Haze, and it feels nearly as nice. It adds softness and a lovely halo to the blanket. I would be very pleased to come across more of this. 
