Labor of Love

As those of you who read this blog from time to time know, I love to knit! I spent most of 2011 knitting up a storm. The bad news is that, since I hadn't started this blog yet, I didn't take pictures of all of the scarves, potholders and coffee cozies that I knitted. Once I'd done dozens of projects like that, I knew it was time to try the mother of all projects: the blanket. I wanted something I could work on for a while, and I figured it would be cheaper to do one big project, even using a bunch of yarn, than to do several smaller ones. I decided to make this throw.

The pattern I used was inspired by something I saw in an old knitting book of my mom's from the 1970s. The photo above shows a nice view of the seed stitched edge.

 Here's a nice shot of the checkerboard effect. While I love basket weave, I knew that the checked look would be easier to achieve. The main difference between the two are whether the squares are all the same dimensions, or whether some are bigger and some smaller, creating the woven look. Because all the squares are the same size, I was able to use knitting markers in the first row and keep them in the same location as I worked the whole thing. The squares are all 8 rows by 8 stitches.

I began with 4 skeins of yarn. Then, I had to go back for another 4. Finally, the 9th skein did the trick.

This is a THROW blanket that is covering the entirety of my full-sized bed. Yikes! While I hate tiny little throw blankets, mostly because I'm so tall, this one is a total monster. The finished dimensions, which I measured just moments after taking this photo, were 57" wide by 73" long. I used it yesterday while I was watching TV and noticed that, even this acrylic yarn (Impeccable from Michaels) doesn't provide the kind of heat I thought it would. I think this will be just the right weight for summer. And boy, does this thing have drape! It's so heavy that it stretches out when you hold it up. I wasn't really expecting that when I made it, but the draping makes it extra cozy!

After having worked through 8+ skeins of yarn, during a period of about a year, I can say that I'm definitely glad to be done, though this project was certainly a labor of love.