Rainbow feather/fan blanket

Recipient: DD
Designer: Unknown - will check
Pattern: Unknown - will check
Source: Unknown - will check
Due: June 23, 2007
Colours: "Candy Baby": variegated yellow/pink/orange/lavender/green/blue
Yarn: Bernat Softee Baby, 100% acrylic, sportweight
WIP status: Working on 2nd side of edging

2007-Jun-14

I've rounded the second corner of the edging, but now I'm having second thoughts. I'm looking at the edging along the top and I'm pretty sure I didn't pick up enough stitches for it, because the blanket is puckering there. As much as I despise the idea of ripping back over ten edging repeats, I think I might just have to do it to get a decent-looking blanket. The big problem is that I'm not sure I have enough yarn for the extra repeats. So I'm kind of avoiding the blanket at the moment.

2007-Jun-6

I have turned the first corner on the edging!



I'm trying to get several edging repeats done a day so I can have a hope in hell of finishing this thing soon. Ideally, I'd like to have it ready for DD1's 'friends' birthday party in a few weeks.

2007-May-31

Body is finished! (And boy, is it ever super-obvious where the fourth ball starts. Even taking colour differences into account, the damn thing doesn't variegate even remotely like the other three balls. Ironically, I like the way the fourth ball variegates better.) Edging has begun:

2007-May-19

In triumph, I finished off the third ball of yarn last night and started in on the fourth. It was immediately obvious that I was totally screwed.

If you'll recall, I originally bought a single ball of this yarn (thinking I could do a hat and mitts for DD1 with it, or something similar), brought it home, and was told by DD1 that she wanted a blanket made out of it. We then went back to the store and bought three more balls.

Well...this fourth ball I'm now working with is obviously the one I bought on the first shopping expedition, because it is markedly different from the other three. I checked the ball bands, and sure enough...totally different dye lots. You'd think that dye lot would be completely irrelevant for a wildly variegated yarn like this (that was certainly my theory, which is why I didn't even bother to check dye lot when making the second purchase), but nope! Many of the colours that were only briefly transitional in the other balls are now major components of the colourway in this fourth ball, and vice versa. For example, in the three previous balls, indigo would show up for one stitch in between a run of pink and green. But now in this ball, the indigo goes on forever and there's hardly ever any pink. The overall effect is way more pastel-ly and the difference between the end of ball three and the start of ball four is blatantly obvious. To me, anyway. What do you think?


(Apologies for the blurriness of the photo - I was trying to hold a baby and keep the camera steady at the same time. Tough gig.)

I think it's going to stand out like a sore thumb, even though I have only two and a half more pattern repeats to go before starting the edging. (The edging I could live with looking somewhat different. A thin strip of the body at the top, not so much.)

Sigh.

2007-May-14

Zooming along very nicely on this - I'm now on the 17th repeat of the pattern. Less than 4 more to go! Of course, just as I was mentally congratulating myself on how fast I was getting this done, DD1 asked, "When are you going to be finished my blanket, Mummy? I want it now!"

2007-May-10

It's getting there. I've got about seven more pattern repeats to go:

2007-May-3

Work continues - I've finished the first ball of yarn and am working my way through the second. It's still hideous. An acquaintance of mine actually suggested than it looked more like "Muppets in a blender" than Muppet vomit, and as sick as that imagery is, I unfortunately have to agree with her. DD1 continues to think the blanket is cool as all get-out.

2007-Apr-30

Once DD2's romper project was off the 4mm circular, I was able to cast on for this project. This delighted me no end since it does NOT require buttons!



Isn't it absolutely hideous? It's like Muppet vomit or something.

I swear that only for a small child would I be willing to make something out of this yarn. DD1 actually squealed with delight when she saw it started on the needles, so I anticipate that it will be a great success.

2007-Apr-10

As if two new projects were not enough, I suddenly found myself with something else. While on one of my hunting-and-gathering-for-the-baby shopping trips (during which I foolishly forgot that I was 38 weeks pregnant and that perhaps walking around for two hours without any food close to lunchtime was a super dumbass idea), I spotted this yarn:


Cute, funky, fun. Great colours for DD. Had to have it. Bought a ball (140g). Brought it home, asked DD if she liked it (she did), asked her what she wanted me to make with it. The answer? A blanket.

Damn.

So back we went to the store yesterday and bought the store out of the remaining three balls that they had. (This caused DD some concern - she wanted to know what would happen if someone else came to the store wanting that yarn and discovered it was all gone. Fortunately, I restrained myself from answering, "Too damn bad for them," and instead mumbled something about first come first serve and how the store would probably bring in more of the same yarn later.) While she was napping yesterday, I pulled out all the blanket patterns I had that I figured would work well with the variegation. This morning at breakfast, we went over it all and she chose a pattern: a really cute feather/fan thing that I've made before - it's very sweet and I think it will work out well.