Tuesday 22 September 2009

Fairy Tale Blanket

I have a pile of patches sitting on top of our bookshelves that rather remind me of the incredible, inviting stack of mattresses in The Princess and the Pea fairy tale. My little patches aren't waiting to have a vegetable inserted between them or to be tested by royalty, however. They're waiting to be joined by yet more little patches before being fashioned into a blanket. I imagine the blanket's (distant) future as one of much luxury; it'll sit on the back of a deeply comfy chair waiting for someone who needs a bit of blankety goodness to match lazy thoughts of coffee, music, swaying fireplace flames and a good book on a wintery day. Blissful. Maybe cake should feature in the picture too, it would be unkind to leave it out of such perfection. I can visualise the blanket's future so clearly and with such decadence that it's a bit of a shock to look back at my wee squares and find them unfinished.... Ach well, the vision is good motivation nonetheless.


The squares are made of Bamboo tape yarn and were originally inspired by a little moss stitch heart tutorial in the Stitch 'n' Bitch Knitter's Handbook. The great thing about Bamboo tape for a knitting novice like me is it's very easy to reverse and correct mistakes thanks to the yarn's ribbony structure and slight stretch. On a very practical note the Bamboo's totally washable in the machine too, this will be very helpful when it comes to my less than careful attitude towards devouring coffee and cake. I simply cannot exist in a dry-clean only environment.

So far I've completed about 25 squares, each is 23 stitches by 23 rows, I think I'll need about 60-80 squares to make the finished product a decent size. The whole project is ideal for picking up here and there, doing a little and then putting down till time becomes available again. Even when there isn't time to knit, in their stack of mattresses kinda way, these wee squares are eye candy just as they are.

2 comments:

Elaine said...

how long do you reckon it takes you to knit 1 square? just so I can figure out how many films you have to knit through before blanket is finished...!

Heather said...

Oooh 1 hr without film, 2 with, I reckon.....