March 1, 2005
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I’ve figured out a brilliant (um . . . for me, anyway) way to make a blanket out of some yarn that I purchased right before leaving France. I’ve been stressing about this yarn for months. I bought about 20 skeins of it because it was on sale, it was all they had, and it matches (wonder of wonders) the green-gold-blue Mediterranean-looking futon cover that I’ve despaired of EVER matching with ANYTHING. The saleslady thought 20 would be enough to make a throw, but I had no idea what dimensions or how to go about it. I started just making squares, and I figured I would stitch them together when I was finished, but with all of the casting-on and -off, I worried about all of the waste. I mean, I don’t have enough to waste–I need to make it go as far as I can!My current flirtation with quilting suddenly came in handy. I figured out that I could approach my throw like one giant half log cabin square. I started in the lower right corner with a blue 12×12 square, then continued on with another green square, making a 12×24 rectangle, or a 1 block by 2 block rectangle. I left the stitches on a holder, and I picked up stitches along the 24-inch side, and made two more blocks (the green and the multi-colored). Now I have a 2 block by 2 block square. Leaving THESE stitches on a holder, I picked up stitches along the new block (next to the old block with the still-live stitches); I’m in the process of knitting these to form a 2 by 3 block rectangle. I’ll keep going in this manner until I run out of yarn.
This way, I’ll use up all my yarn, with a minimum of casting on and off, yet the proportions will always be pleasing, since it’ll always be either a square or a medium-ish rectangle. No “guessing” about what dimensions it MIGHT turn out and then accidentally ending up with a funky shape.
