Do you all remember the 26 before 26 list that I had? You know, the one that I bombed on miserably, and only finished maybe a third of the items? And then never wrapped it up when I actually turned 26......
Well, live and learn I guess! You'll notice I never got around to making a 27 before 27 list either, ha! Probably for the best.
Anyway, one of the things on that list was knitting a blanket. I did start that goal fall of 2015, and I made some good progress on it that winter. I didn't end up finishing before my birthday, but I did finish it this last fall and I'm finally getting around to sharing it!
I posted some of these pictures on Instagram when I finished it, so if you follow me there you've probably already seen them.
This was such a fun project, and definitely the most challenging knitting I've taken on so far. It was a free pattern from Home D-zine that I modified a little bit, and while it took a year all together, I would only work on it for a couple weeks before leaving it untouched for a several months. If I had really buckled down I could have completed it a lot sooner, but I was a bit busy with a remodel and all.
I have to say that the hardest part (besides getting the repetition down) was learning to decode parts of the pattern. I haven't really tried to follow very many patterns to be honest, and there were some abbreviations for things that I had no clue how to do!
It took quite a bit of sleuthing to find out, but once I got that done it wasn't too bad. I noticed now though, the pattern explains a little better how to do the things I was confused about. Either it's been updated since I started this project, or I was blind as a bat!
I would recommend anyone try this, because once you get the basics down it's all about repeating pattern. If you can do basic knitting, I think you could knit this blanket. And it will really make you think about all of those cheap knitted throws you can buy in stores. It cost me around $80 in yarn (I think?) and that doesn't even include my time. Don't try this if you're trying to make a cheap diy, yarn is expensive! (Also, this blanket is huge, much bigger than a throw. It covers our bed, which is a queen.)
If you do decide to try it, I should mention that I changed one thing from the pattern. It has you knitting the blanket into three panels and then using yarn to sew them together. I didn't trust myself to knit them all so evenly that they would line up perfectly, so I knitted them all across at the same time. I just bought an extra long set of round needles and it all fit.
I'm so happy that I tried this, and that I was able to complete it! It feels nice to make something this big, and hopefully it will last me the rest of my life. Now I just need to figure out what my next major knitting project will be.
Maybe a beanie, because I haven't made one of those yet, and you can never have too many beanies ;)
Have you ever tried knitting? Do you think you would ever try something as ambitious as cabled blanket? Let me know!
Thanks for stopping by :)
P.S.- If any of you are feeling brave and want to take this on, feel free to ask me any questions that I didn't address here. Hopefully I can be of some help!
- Thursday, January 19, 2017
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