💬What's your magnum opus?
How I accidentally knit a 2 kilo blanket
It began in the most innocuous of ways. A simple, knitted, garter stitch triangle and an intention to knit a couple of rows a day - every day - in 2020.
It ended with a blanket that fully carpeted our stairs and which weighed 2 kilos.
In January 2020 I decided that I was going to knit a Temperature Blanket as a year long project (with no idea that I would end up spending quite so much time at home knitting). The concept is a simple one - you allocate a yarn colour to a temperature scale and knit a row or two, each day, in the colour that corresponds to the day’s temperature.
I opted for a corner to corner blanket as it offered a quick and easy start - no one enjoys a 300-stitch cast on after all. The downside of this only became apparent later on when I found myself knitting the super long centre rows throughout a sweltering hot summer 🤣
Nevertheless, I persisted.
And by the end of the year I had knitted the Mother of All Blankets. She weighed in at a whopping 1.98 kilos and proved impossible to photograph without artfully draping it across our stairs and hallway.
I also calculated (and I wished I hadn’t) that it comprised 792,000 stitches and took approximately 293 hours of knitting time 😲 It’s fair to say that had Covid not intervened I might never have finished this blanket. But as it turned out I had plenty of time on my hands and also my panicked, over anxious brain craved the kind of zone-out potential that a garter stitch blanket provides.
You can read more about this epic endeavour here if you are interested. And I also have an e-book for sale now - written basically as the resource I wish I had when I was planning my own blanket. I made the mistakes so you don’t have to!
So, over to you….
What’s the one craft project (big or small) that you are most proud of. Do let me know in the comments.
I’ve thought of a temperature blanket and, indeed, have downloaded your ebook!
I’ve knitted two blankets - both KALs from my local and best yarn shop, based in Culcheth, Warrington. Kits were provided during the first lockdown and a square downloaded each week. As a headteacher during that time when I worked more days than usual despite the papers saying we were closed, providing online learning and onsite learning despite constant last minute changes from DfE and frankly inadequate broadband infrastructure and IT hardware, I would come home and knit. What balm, what solace, what a blessing! I completed two different KALs and they were life savers.
As for now, I have a woolly ‘paper chain’ which will adorn the tree when it goes up on Gaudete Sunday (3rd Sunday of Advent and lighting of a rose coloured candle on the Advent Wreath) I add about 20 woolly links each year. Have about 100 links so far, in green and red. Gives me continuity from when I started in 2019!
I wish I could leave a picture in the comments. My temperature blanket turned into one of those big projects. I decided I was doing granny squares. I started with 3 rounds a square but it didn’t seem big enough per square so I went slightly bigger. BIG mistake. In the end it was so big that to get half in a photo I had to hang the blanket on the washing line… when I spread out the finished version it took up most of the lounge floor and didn’t really get used for anything. It was too big for our old double bed. We now have a long size but our apartment is so warm we’d probably melt under it! 😂 when we moved husband asked what I wanted to do with it and I said I didn’t know. I suggested that he took it to my Mum’s and we’d cut it down into single size blankets and donate to the local night shelter. He wasn’t keen on this idea. He’s not a Scrooge and would willingly help but he felt like it was destroying something I’d worked hard on. So it was put in storage and might be coming over to DK this Christmas. Then I need to decide what to do with it! 😂😂