Presenting...

the FINISHED hodge podge blankie!!!

I think I am going to take a rest now...

Seaming Party

A BIG BIG BIG THANK YOU to the gals who came over on Saturday night to help me seam my blankie.

So, on Saturday night, Mona, Lyn and Vanessa came over for a seaming party. I'd let out a LOUD SOS for my blankie as I am running out of time to finish it for my dad's birthday in August. So, in the true spirit of all knitters, they answered my call for help. I had promise nourishment in exchange for their seaming services.

As I can't cook to save my life, I managed to convince the BF to cook and cook he did. Well, it wasn't hard to convince him to cook as I think that he is as sick of the blankie as I am. I started it last September and almost a year later, it still isn't finished. As it is getting rather large, I have no place to store it so I've been keeping it in the living room whilst I work on it and being a neat freak, he absolutely HATES it there!

He fed us all really well, too well I think as progress after we were fed was rather slow as everyone was trying to digest the chicken lasagne, salad and sticky date pudding he made. I know that I am biased but I thought that he did a great job so a big THANK YOU to him as well *MUAH*.

Unfortunately, by the time dinner was served, we were all too hungry to even think of taking pictures of the food but here are some pictures from the night:

sprawled out on the living room floor... note: we realised that we are not as flexible as we used to be. Our backs started to give way before our spirit did!!


hard at work


group shot...

a close up of seams ... I LOVE how it looks like with the borders as it just "completes" it

Try as I could, I simply could NOT finish all the knitting on time i.e. before the gals arrived. Thank gawd for Vanessa as she managed two squares for me. Thanks to her squares, I had enough squares. As backup, Mona arrived with some of her crocheted squares. But then, I stuffed up the length of the border.

I had knitted 4 long, LONG rows of the borders i.e. 12 stitches wide and about 6 feet long of plain knitting. No purl mind you, just knit and it wasn't long enough! I had thought it was long enough and believe you me, after all that mindless and BORRRRING knitting, I was ready to chuck it all (it didn't help that my work project is due to be completed soon and I wasn't in the best of moods). I thought that I could simply stretch it out but thanks to the wisdom of Mona, we didn't. The blanket would have curled if we did. I never thought about that. It pays to listen to more experienced knitters :o) .

So, after the seaming party, my blankie still isn't finished. The gals stayed till close to midnight and did HEAPS but there was just too much to do. Vanessa is a WHIZ with the needle we can tell you... she was seaming along like Speedy Gonzales on speed. The woman can sew and she does it WELL!!

Once again, a BIG BIG THANK YOU to everyone who helped. At the time of writing, I still have 1.25 sides and a few more squares to sew on and then I will be DONE DONE DONE!! Lace... need to knit lace... need lace... need lace...

4:03 pm :: 5 comments ::

Knittin Gal :: permalink

The Finger "Yarn"

A big thank you to everyone who wrote me regarding my finger. Well, suffice to say, I didn't break it. A good friend of mine dragged me off to the doc's after seeing it and the doc sent me to get an x-ray. I now have conclusive proof that it isn't broken. Turns out I strained the ligament and it became worse as I didn't treat it. FYI, for strained ligaments, it is best to keep it immobilised and to take anti inflammatory meds. This I have learnt.

Unfortunately, I had my fingers in a splint (which is a fancy word for a broken ice cream stick thingy, wrapped with a yucky, easy to unravel bandage) which limited my mobility in my right hand and made it virtually impossible to type, draw flowcharts, sign cheques and knit! GRRR!! I am so way behind on my blankie right now that it isn't funny. Anyone out there care to donate a square or two?

Right now, I need about 5 more squares and 2.95 more borders. I hope I can finish it on time for this weekend as I plan on having my seaming party then. If I don't finish it, there won't be much to seam!!

Thankfully my finger is heaps better. It still hurts but I was told that it would take time to heal and after me almost gauging my eye out with the ice cream stick thingy, I took the splint off. It is so easy to forget to not rub your eyes when one's fingers in encased in a splint. At least I can now knit... albeit slowly but I can knit! JOY JOY JOY!!!

Blocking & More

After much procrastinating, I finally blocked my Ripple Shawl. I'd been putting it off as I was a little worried that I'd do something wrong and all my hard work would be wasted. However, as it is meant to be a present for my sister for winter (which officially begun early last month!), I bit the bullet and tried blocking for my very first time.

After reading the numerous books I had, I concluded that it isn't as harrowing a process as I previously thought it was. However, I don't have a spare bed, I don't have a blocking board etc. So, I rummaged through our old bed linens (well, the BF's bed linens) and constructed a blocking board of sorts, out on the balcony. I then proceeded to block the shawl. The shape of the original shawl doesn't need blocking but being the dufus that I am, I miscalculated (again) the amount of material required and the final product was just a tad too short. I had to stretch it out so that it can indeed be a shawl.


My makeshift blocking board out on the balcony.

Now, blocking isn't as easy as the gals or the books claim to be. Why? Well, firstly, the pins I had bought, well, they just didn't work. The heads were just too small and my shawl kept pulling away from it. Luckily, I had another stash of pins, with a bigger head. They worked better...

The pins I had.

I think I need another alternative to my "blocking board" as bed linens on a concrete floor doesn't work too well. The linens kept curling up and my precious stash of big headed pins kept bending as I was pushing too hard through the linen and ended up hitting the floor.

As I didn't have enough pins, I don't think I blocked it right. The edges might come out a little warped. Oh hindsight, I should have used more pins and pinned them closer together. The books didn't say anything about how far apart the pins should be *humph*.

The edges.

After painfully pinning and unpinning my work, I sprayed it with water. At the time of writing, it is almost dry. Hopefully it won't be THAT much of a disaster. At least, I got it to 60". That should be long enough for my sister, who is rather tiny.

On the blankie front, well, progress has been rather slow as work has been bogging me down. Since I last wrote, I now need another 10 squares and the border. Thankfully, Vanessa has done two, so I now need a grand total of 8 squares and the border. I saw the BF off to Sipadan today so in theory, I'll have peace and quiet to knit this weekend but NOOOOOOOOO, the forces that be are working against me *sigh*.

You see, last night after dinner, we were mucking around in the car on the way back home. He grabbed my fingers and to cut a long story short, he went one way and my fingers went the other way. I howled in pain and the poor lad felt so bad he almost pulled over, outside the apartment block. I actually started tearing a little, the pain was so bad. It hurt last night but the pain went away.

Unfortunately, that can't be said about today... my finger feels like it has been hit by a sledge hammer! I hope I haven't broken it or anything. That will seriously hinder my knitting plans this weekend!!! At least I can still move it. If the pain doesn't subside by the end of today, it's off to the doctors I go *sigh*. And I was so looking forward to planting my ample behind on the sofa, knitting whilst watching ER, Sex and the City etc... all courtesy off this most wonderful invention called peer-to-peer networking.

The Saga Continues...

Life is hard with deadlines I can tell you... not only do I have work related deadlines and audits screaming out of my head and from places where the sun don't shine, but the deadline for my blankie is looming. There just isn't enough time during the day as I require sleep! A Panda is what I look like now and a life is what I don't have *sigh*.

At least my blankie is progressing somewhat... I did a tally last night... minus the one that Vanessa did for me, I need 14 more squares, plus the dreaded border. Let's see... today is the 5th of July. I'm planning on holding my seaming party on the 23... that gives me 18 days to complete 14 squares and the border... *mantra* it can be done, it can be done, it can be done. Oh thank heavens the BF is heading off next week for 5 days... guess what I'll be doing??

I read that Mona is now doing a hodge podge blankie as well... good luck girl! If you need some material, I'll gladly donate some from my ever growing stash... :o).