Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Keep Warm My Babies is Officially Finished!

IT'S FINISHED!! The ends are woven in. The border is complete. It's washed, blocked and ready to use.

This blanket is ready to keep my feet warm.

The back-story
Way back in the summer of 2010, some Ravelry* friends and I were having a Conan-themed knitalong. It was a fun way to pass the time until his new show debuted. (If you're new to my blog, then you're probably thinking that I'm pretty geeky. It's ok. I'm not offended.)

After knitting some orange fingerless gloves and some orange wristbands**, I decided that I wanted to knit something big. Really big. I sketched out a couple of blanket ideas but nothing really jumped off the page. Then one day, I saw a photo of Conan's old Late Night set and inspiration struck me: the furniture from the show's final years reminded me of a log cabin blanket. Why hadn't I noticed this before? I couldn't wait to start – I started doing some sketches, ordered my yarn and set out to write the pattern.

I spent a few weeks knitting test squares and trying out different needle sizes. Shudder. After three failed attempts I finally succeeded in knitting two different squares with dimensions that were close enough to seam together. Then it was time to settle in for months of seemingly-endless garter stitch.

Squares before seaming.

I love this blanket because it celebrates something special to me. Most of all, I love that it captures eight months of my life: my dad's seven-week recovery in the hospital; conversations over tea with good friends; summer concerts and snow days; cheering for the Texas Rangers as they played in the World Series; watching revolution unfold in Egypt. Store-bought blankets don't carry this kind of history, and that's one of the eleventy-jillion reasons why I love knitting.

Project details will follow, soon. First I need to use some of my book learnin' to calculate my yardage.

Yay! I can't believe it's finished!
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*Ravelry: Ravelry is a social networking website for knitters, crocheters, spinners, dyers, etc. It has over 1 million members and you can learn more about it on Wikipedia. Within Ravelry, I moderate a group for Conan fans called "The String Dance." Conan fans who love fiber arts... talk about a niche market.

**I just realized I haven't shared this story on my blog. I'll write a post soon!