Sunday, April 01, 2007

Log House Blanket in Progress

The log cabin blanket has grown enough for it to be a Log House blanket. Right not now it's approximately 2.5 x 3.5 feet. Crib blanket size. The first picture is the front. I'm not actually following log cabin construction procedures anyway. I went around and around for a lot of it. Now I'm back to one side at a time, but I am not binding off. I'm keeping the stitches live. I have 4 needles now, one on each side. Three of them are U.S. size 5 and the other is either a generous five or a wimpy 6. I'm pretending it doesn't matter, and it doesn't. The thing feels good: sturdy and clean. If I work the ends in correctly, the owners will be able to wash the heck out of it and drag it all over town.
I want the central rectangle to parallel the shape of the bed, not cross it. I want it closer to the head than the foot. Once I meet the width requirements, I will begin adding strips to the top and bottom to meet the length requirements. In the second picture you can see a row of mitered squares going across one end. I will be repeating that motif on the opposite end with another color of variegated yarn. I think it will look nice. There may be more than one more row of these. Each edition will be a different size. The ones pictured are 10 x 10 stitches for a total of one hundred stitches. That is to say, that row is composed of ten 10-stitch squares and was 100 stitches across before I added the strip you can just about see on the right.
This isn't as monotonous a project as I thought it would be. The modular knitting of the mitered squares helped a lot. It's an in-between projects project and that helps keep it interesting, too. It's nice because I can figure out where I was when I pick it up again. Even if I couldn't tell, I could change it up anyway. It doesn't seem to look any worse no matter what I do. It has some charm, yet it's quite ugly. Coordinated colors would go a long way, but then it wouldn't be a scrap quilt. Cheap cotton yarn scraps don't come in nearly the color range that cotton fabric does. I'd be ashamed to have made this out of fabric because the colors (and dearth of planning) have caused a lack of balance in composition. It helps to hang it up in the backyard and take its picture. I can see how much the red line helps, and the large green frame for that matter. I'll have to repeat that.
Here is the back for a little end-weaving preview.

5 comments:

Batty said...

Very nice blanket! It looks warm and cozy. It's also big. I admire your ability to persevere in the face of lots of garter stitch!

Anonymous said...

That's a lot of work and it is looking great!

Sue, aka seiding said...

It has a Gee's Bend sort of flair. Now I'm worried about the neon yellow and lime I was going to donate to the cause. Will they work? Will you be done before I can get them to you? Is it going to be king-sized?

Jessie said...

I'm working on a log cabin blanket, too, but yours is much prettier. I love the scrappiness of it!

Ira Glass hosts This American Life, both a weekly show on NPR and more recently, a tv show on Showtime. He is my personal idol/hero/unrequited love/etc.

Kathy Kathy Kathy said...

There's not a chance this blanket is prettier than yours. I'd love to see it.