Sheep Shots

The hexagonal oddball blankie is finished:



It's 46" wide or 50" depending on whether you measure flat to flat or point to point. Used 24 ounces of yarn all together.

I held onto the last full ball of Woolease Tartan left from my cardigan and used that for an 8 row garter stitch border.

Recipe is thanks to Tallguy in Alberta. He gave me the idea and noodged me along. I hope he sees the picture! Tallguy claims to have mixed all sorts of fibers in his rendition. I have no reason to doubt him, but I wanted to use up my acrylic scraps.

Here's what we did (don't know where he leaves off and I start!):

Gather a whole mess of yarn in long, short and inbetween lengths and (me) all the same weight, or not (Tallguy). I used size 6 needles with worsted (mostly) weight because I wanted a firm fabric (making a baby blankie, I didn't want extra places for tiny fingers to poke through).

Cast on 6 stitches, divide onto 3 double pointed needles. Join and (you know the drill) don't twist 'em. Knit one round.

2nd round: increase in every stitch (12 stitches). I used a YO increase, but kfb or M1 would work just as well, without the holes. Knit 2 rounds without increasing, place a marker between the 2nd and 3rd stitch on each needle on round 4.

5th round and every 3rd round (i.e. 8, 11, 14, ad infinitum ) until the stitches no longer fit on your dpns: increase at the begining of each needle, before and after each marker, and at the end of each needle (12 increases made).

When you run out of room, switch to a circular needle, add a marker at the spot between each dpn (6 markers, 6 increase points, each with 2 stitches increased, one on each side of the marker). Keep knitting, switching to ever-longer circulars until you run out of yarn or get sick to death of it. Do a garter stitch border (k 1 round, p 1 round) to help the edge lie flat. Bind off loosely. (I had 102 stitches between each pair of markers when I bound off.)

Tallguy suggests (and I concur) that some texture (in the way of a garter stitch round or some YO/ k 2 tog rounds) would add interest. Throw them in when the spirit moves you. Use any yarn piece that's a yard long (or longer). Add fuzzy stuff (I didn't), mix weights. With bigger whacks of yarn, knit a while, then cut and add another yarn.

To join yarns, just start knitting with the new color and tighten up the ends when you weave them in. Tallguy knotted his and said it made no difference in the end. You could also overlap and make 5 or so stitches with both yarns held together, but I think that might get lumpy looking.

Enjoy!

I think that I'll be starting another cernter-out, this time, a square. And I'll be throwing some texture into it. I might even use my Elann samples. I have over a year's worth at this point. The colors are cool and the textures would add interest.

I want to start an oddball shawl with a bunch of mohair I've acquired over the last couple years (not counting the big whack I just :ahem, cough: bought from Elann). I may just do a giant hexagon on size 10.5 needles (since I have them in all lengths through 60").

Acrylic countdown: I still have 2 bushel-size laundry baskets full of "good qualtity" charity yarn (Cervinia Sorrento, and some decent baby yarn, Bernat Ragg, and Red Heart Lustersheen). I also have a bunch of Red Heart Supersaver which, while good for charity knitting, isn't what I consider "good quality." I'll be using these for mittens and hats and slippers, then mailing them off.

And I've already knocked off 6 balls (1410 yards). Found an error in my spreadsheet. I had Bernat Aspen listed as all acrylic. It's got some wool!

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