Last Blanket… Ever?

Okay, not really but for a while at least! I swear blankets just suck the SOUL out of you. Although I loved knitting Girasole, it was very big and took quite a while to finish. Then, crazy me, decided to make another blanket right afterward. A baby blanket, of course, but boy what a BAD idea! Especially when the blanket is just not interesting knitting at all… garter stitch all the way through with just four increases per row? Can we say M-O-N-O-T-O-N-O-U-S? Indeed, it reminded me very much of one of my college professors who had the most boring voice in the world (interestingly enough he was also the Unabomber’s roommate while he was at Berkeley and the rumor on campus was that he was a suspect for the Unabomber before they actually caught Ted Kaczynski… probably untrue, but one look at this professor and you wouldn’t doubt it!). I’m surprised I didn’t fall asleep more often in that class. 150 students and an 8am class makes it the perfect class to sleep through. Perhaps it was because it was Calculus and falling asleep through it was probably not the best idea! But I digress… I’m talking about the Baby OpArt Blanket that I made for my soon-to-be-born nephew. The end result of it is pretty cool, if I do say so myself:

This blanket is a perfect example of the difference that blocking can make. Here it is pre-block looking all wonky:

I do love the end result, but not sure I’d ever make it again… never-ending knit and purl rows = not fun! Plus all the ends to weave in! It wasn’t so bad as I always weave as I go, but still not that fun. Also a perfect example as to why you should never leave all the ends to weave in until the end. I think I’d go crazy if I had to do that!

It’s all ready to get picked up… my brother-in-law is coming to New York (they live in San Francisco) for a quick 1-day business trip and I’ll give it to him then. I have these little tags that I made and printed out from Moo.com and I just love how they look:

Very professional, no? 😉 I actually only made them so it’s easier to give knit-recipients care instructions. Here’s the back of the card:

I didn’t put tumble dry low as an option on the card as most yarn isn’t tumble dry low… I figured it doesn’t look so bad to scratch it out and write it in. I’m NOT a professional, afterall!

Now that I’m done with blankets (for a long while at least), I’m moving on to a great shrug that I’m test-knitting. I’m very excited about this shrug as I just love the pattern and the yarn that I’m using is just gorgeous. It’s a merino/seacell blend from one of my favorite yarn sources, Fiberphile. It has a nice sheen to it and is just beautiful knit up. The pattern, Liquorice Shrug (Rav link), is so far knitting up very easily. It’s an intuitive pattern and is easy to get a hang of it and to understand what’s supposed to happen next. I’m not that far into it, but here’s what I have so far:

And just to show you what I mean about the yummy-ness of this yarn, here’s a close-up of it:

Also, I just received my new small-project knitting bag from the Tink-n-Frog and I love it! It’s cute, fits a sock project easily (plus scissors and other knitting notions) and is easy to carry either on the wrist or on the shoulder. How much more can you ask for?

When not knitting I’ve been trying to spend as much time outside as I can. The pups love being outside as well!

Next week we’re going to Central Park to see if more flowers are in bloom (I hope so!) but for now, here’s a small preview of Spring. I can’t wait until all the trees are covered in blossoms… it’s why I love Spring in the East Coast. 🙂