Revelation
The part of knitting most people don't talk about:
Math.
Yep, you read that right - I did just say math. Lots and lots (okay, not really all that much) of math. I suppose there's math to any project, especially if you're not like me and actually swatch before beginning a new project.
This project, however, has taken some extra effort. I'd guess about a good hour or so was spent crunching numbers - How many stitches to cast on? How many stitches should be used to make the border? How many squares to make? Would things work as planned or did I need to edit? Etc, etc...
Am happy to say that all that plotting and crunching came in handy.
This is it - the secret project I wrote about in my last post. A baby blanket.
Once again I'm using the Snowflake Eyelet pattern. The squares are much smaller than in the original, as are the borders both around the squares and the blanket itself. The exception to that statement are the top borders for the squares, which are larger.
The biggest change is adding various baby-themed pictures in some of the squares. The pictures are from another booklet I bought a couple of years ago called Baby Washcloths to Knit. I've been wanting to use some of these for a baby blanket ever since I bought the booklet, yet didn't want to mess with seaming.
That was the start of my planning - how to put together the washcloth pictures into a blanket. Originally I thought of just making sqaures with just the pictures alternated with plain stockinette squares, yet then I thought some sort of lace pattern would be better. Then I found the Snowflake Eyelet pattern, and, Voila!
Hense all the math. The first objective was to see if the two patterns would work together, which happily they did. That in itself was almost amazing, because not only did they have to work in terms of how many stitches to cast on, but also in how many rows it takes to complete the pattern. Next was determaining how many squares to make (yes, I actually swatched in this case. Gasp!) and how large to make the borders. I suppose there is some tweaking here and there to be made, yet thus far I'm pretty happy with the result.
So there you have it - the secret project has been revealed. Never was too good at keeping secrets. :P That, and considering I'm now off to a place with limited internet access, didn't seem right to keep everyone in suspense. Will definately post pictures and the complete information once the blanket's done.
But while I'm at it, might as well share my next project just in case. I found this yarn on sale at JoAnn Fabrics and couldn't resist. I'm thinking with these I'll make a blanket for some dear friends of mine up north, something they can put on their couch and snuggle with on cold nights.
Happy knitting!