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!
Those blanket KALs seems like they were just the right thing at the right time. Knitting really is the perfect stress reliever isn't it. Being a headteacher must have been incredibly stressful. I was amazed at how well our local school dealt with it, they really were exceptional and my boys were totally supported.
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! 😂😂
Grrr...yes. I keep forgetting. Weirdly you can put images in chat threads but not in response to posts. It's all very confusing. I'll see if I can add a chat link to this post so we can share images.
I don’t know about a magnum opus, but my three zip-up-the-back baby sweaters and one hoodie-style front zip sweaters I knit for my 4 grandkids are my favorites. Oops! Can’t forget the Very Hungry Caterpillar sweaters I knit for two of them for. Christmas! (I’m rather besotted with my grands.)
I’ve shared this with my middle daughter, as she has made two of the temperature blankets—one for each son. She started hers with casting on the short end. They’re still quite large.
What were the finished dimensions of your blanket?
It's about the width of a double bed and approximately 8 feet long. I don't have anywhere in the house that's long enough to stretch it out though, to measure it properly
That is truly awesome! I imagine it can wrap up your entire family and keep them warm! Mine would be the children’s Christmas picture book I illustrated. The double spreads, of which there are three, took me over 30 hours each to draw!
Mine was actually quite small but I was super chuffed with it - my work had a desk decorating competition during the Euros this summer. I am English among a squad of Glaswegians so I wondered if I could knit a little Gareth Southgate for a montage. Thankfully I found a pattern! Wee Gareth was a dead ringer for our big boss Alastair which made everyone howl 🤣 I won a prize - a Team Scotland survival goodie bag full of Prosecco, crisps, biscuits and a JustEat voucher 🤩 I was absolutely delighted with myself. My embroidery skills are lacking so he is a bit bug eyed but otherwise I think he looked smashing! I still have him on my desk at home and it makes me smile every time I see him 🥰
I can't leave a photo sadly so you'll just have to imagine him ❤
That would be the shawl I knitted for myself - pattern is called Every Which Way Wrap and I don't even know if it's still available. It was pretty big, with some nice cable work. What makes it my magnum opus, though, is its final use:
Years after I had made it, my dad, days from his death, complained that he couldn't get warm. The hospital blankets weren't doing it.
I remembered the shawl and asked him if he'd like me to run home to get it. He agreed eagerly and when I draped it over him (he was now so small that the shawl covered him completely) he sighed, finally warm. He died a few days later.
The shawl found its true purpose that day, and nothing will ever top that. It covers him where he lies in repose now.
Oh that's so lovely 🩷 A similar thing happened with my later mother in law. She purposely asked for a blanket I'd made for her to be brought in - she was always cold - and it was keeping her warm as she died. My husband and father in law arranged for it to stay with her. Sometimes as knitters it's such an honour to be able to help people in this way isn't it.
It is. It's an honor and, for me, a final way of connecting with my dad; it felt - still feels - like closing the circle somehow. Completion.
How lovely that your mother-in-law asked for a specific blanket you'd made. Your fingers touched every millimeter of that fiber of that warming blanket, and she was warmed, indirectly, by the warmth of your touch.
I've yet to finish my 2023 temperature blanket but it is on my to-finish list for 2025. Although I rather fancy the idea of knitting paper chains like Claire above. My biggest completed project would be my very first jumper in the 1980's, which ended as a dress 😂
I made a blanket from 9 squares of crochet, taken from the central part of the Elements CAL. It doesn't sound like much but each square is about 40cm x 40cm, and it's overlay crochet so it weighs a LOT. I have never dared to calculate what I spent on the yarn (Scheepjes Stonewashed XL) as I just ordered what I needed to finish it. It's probably the most expensive thing I've ever made and never used - can't risk the cats trashing it!
Mine is much smaller - a knitted lace (yep patterning on right and wrong sides) shawl in lace weight silk with what felt like a squillion beads in it. It probably took a similar number of hours to complete
I did an embroidery journal starting on the day after I turned 59 and ending on my 60th birthday. I tried to pick a unique thing from each day of the year and stitch it. I had intended to stitch an entry each day but while I drew an entry each day much of the actual stitching was in May June and July (good intentions and all that). Also it was at the end of COVID and my life was still pretty isolated so there are a lot of yoga poses and stuff. But still there are 365 entries and some pretty memorial ones at that.
Just catching up after a crazy month (included a stomach bug and a round-trip of 44 hours by car for a family funeral). My magnus opus is my first Fair Isle sweater: a 1940s style sweater with a button neck and puff sleeves. I didn't like the original color scheme so chose my own. I probably swatched 10-15 colors to get a *single* color right for the color scheme. I also knit the entire thing in 6 weeks, because it was a test knit for the designer. I lost the sweater in a house disaster, but I would definitely like to reknit it again. <3 Great post! I can't even imagine the weight of your blanket!!!
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!
Those blanket KALs seems like they were just the right thing at the right time. Knitting really is the perfect stress reliever isn't it. Being a headteacher must have been incredibly stressful. I was amazed at how well our local school dealt with it, they really were exceptional and my boys were totally supported.
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! 😂😂
Grrr...yes. I keep forgetting. Weirdly you can put images in chat threads but not in response to posts. It's all very confusing. I'll see if I can add a chat link to this post so we can share images.
I don’t know about a magnum opus, but my three zip-up-the-back baby sweaters and one hoodie-style front zip sweaters I knit for my 4 grandkids are my favorites. Oops! Can’t forget the Very Hungry Caterpillar sweaters I knit for two of them for. Christmas! (I’m rather besotted with my grands.)
I’ve shared this with my middle daughter, as she has made two of the temperature blankets—one for each son. She started hers with casting on the short end. They’re still quite large.
What were the finished dimensions of your blanket?
It's about the width of a double bed and approximately 8 feet long. I don't have anywhere in the house that's long enough to stretch it out though, to measure it properly
That is truly awesome! I imagine it can wrap up your entire family and keep them warm! Mine would be the children’s Christmas picture book I illustrated. The double spreads, of which there are three, took me over 30 hours each to draw!
Mine was actually quite small but I was super chuffed with it - my work had a desk decorating competition during the Euros this summer. I am English among a squad of Glaswegians so I wondered if I could knit a little Gareth Southgate for a montage. Thankfully I found a pattern! Wee Gareth was a dead ringer for our big boss Alastair which made everyone howl 🤣 I won a prize - a Team Scotland survival goodie bag full of Prosecco, crisps, biscuits and a JustEat voucher 🤩 I was absolutely delighted with myself. My embroidery skills are lacking so he is a bit bug eyed but otherwise I think he looked smashing! I still have him on my desk at home and it makes me smile every time I see him 🥰
I can't leave a photo sadly so you'll just have to imagine him ❤
Oh, that's fantastic. That made me smile so much
That would be the shawl I knitted for myself - pattern is called Every Which Way Wrap and I don't even know if it's still available. It was pretty big, with some nice cable work. What makes it my magnum opus, though, is its final use:
Years after I had made it, my dad, days from his death, complained that he couldn't get warm. The hospital blankets weren't doing it.
I remembered the shawl and asked him if he'd like me to run home to get it. He agreed eagerly and when I draped it over him (he was now so small that the shawl covered him completely) he sighed, finally warm. He died a few days later.
The shawl found its true purpose that day, and nothing will ever top that. It covers him where he lies in repose now.
Oh that's so lovely 🩷 A similar thing happened with my later mother in law. She purposely asked for a blanket I'd made for her to be brought in - she was always cold - and it was keeping her warm as she died. My husband and father in law arranged for it to stay with her. Sometimes as knitters it's such an honour to be able to help people in this way isn't it.
It is. It's an honor and, for me, a final way of connecting with my dad; it felt - still feels - like closing the circle somehow. Completion.
How lovely that your mother-in-law asked for a specific blanket you'd made. Your fingers touched every millimeter of that fiber of that warming blanket, and she was warmed, indirectly, by the warmth of your touch.
I've yet to finish my 2023 temperature blanket but it is on my to-finish list for 2025. Although I rather fancy the idea of knitting paper chains like Claire above. My biggest completed project would be my very first jumper in the 1980's, which ended as a dress 😂
I made a blanket from 9 squares of crochet, taken from the central part of the Elements CAL. It doesn't sound like much but each square is about 40cm x 40cm, and it's overlay crochet so it weighs a LOT. I have never dared to calculate what I spent on the yarn (Scheepjes Stonewashed XL) as I just ordered what I needed to finish it. It's probably the most expensive thing I've ever made and never used - can't risk the cats trashing it!
That sounds amazing though. Truly an epic piece
Mine is much smaller - a knitted lace (yep patterning on right and wrong sides) shawl in lace weight silk with what felt like a squillion beads in it. It probably took a similar number of hours to complete
I did an embroidery journal starting on the day after I turned 59 and ending on my 60th birthday. I tried to pick a unique thing from each day of the year and stitch it. I had intended to stitch an entry each day but while I drew an entry each day much of the actual stitching was in May June and July (good intentions and all that). Also it was at the end of COVID and my life was still pretty isolated so there are a lot of yoga poses and stuff. But still there are 365 entries and some pretty memorial ones at that.
Just catching up after a crazy month (included a stomach bug and a round-trip of 44 hours by car for a family funeral). My magnus opus is my first Fair Isle sweater: a 1940s style sweater with a button neck and puff sleeves. I didn't like the original color scheme so chose my own. I probably swatched 10-15 colors to get a *single* color right for the color scheme. I also knit the entire thing in 6 weeks, because it was a test knit for the designer. I lost the sweater in a house disaster, but I would definitely like to reknit it again. <3 Great post! I can't even imagine the weight of your blanket!!!