Thursday, September 5, 2013

The Blanket of the Ages


 
After months of knitting and tracking down Noro #269, My Mitered Crosses Blanket aka The Blanket of the Ages aka THE Blanket is finished. 
 
Here it is with one of my Dad's tractors.  I was getting ready to do photos on Sunday when he suggested that we do like Elizabeth does and hang it on the barn but only if I'd take a picture of the blanket with one of his tractors!  So, Dad, here you are......
 
The squares have been finished since the middle of May but it has taken me all summer to get it sewn up and the border on.  
 
As always with any blanket, I leaned a lot.  My friend, Martha, and I did a private lesson in seaming back at the first of June.  I sort of thought I knew how to seam but wanted to learn the proper way.  And I had read about applied I-cord binding, which for some reason, I thought it would be hard.  As with a lot of things in knitting, if I somehow have the idea that it will be hard, it isn't.  Applied I-cord, in my opinion, is not hard, just fiddly.
 
I have to tell you though that while I was seaming this, I got to thinking that 24 squares wasn't exactly one of my better ideas.  But really the seaming wasn't too bad after I got into the rhythm.  But then while I was doing the border, with the A/C turned down to accommodate the blanket in my lap, 24 squares was perfect again.  And as Martha pointed out when she saw the photo, those extra squares were worth it.  And she is right.
 
When finishing a blanket, at least for me, I look at the finished piece and I see much, much more than just a blanket and lots of garter stitch.  There's a trip to Kentucky to see the fellas and Walker kindly posing for a photo holding a square, knitting at lunch with Martha, knitting in the ER with my Mom (once she and Daddy got so bored they wound yarn for me!), knitting in the hospital with my Mom.  And then my Mom's last days when the I couldn't seem to pick up the correct number of stitches, so I put it down but having it there with me was a comfort.  And afterwards, the endless rows of garter stitch became comforting.  There's also lots of laughter while visiting with family and friends.
 
Someone asked if I'd do this again.  And I would.  I think I'd like to try it in a different yarn and maybe a different weight (fingering weight anyone?) and I'd like to do one without changing colors in the miter.  But I think I'll wait a bit before I start another one.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

6 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Love this! And love those photos. Ronald is a good art director :)

Yolanda said...

Elizabeth - he got the idea of hanging it on the barn from you!

pattie in Geneseo said...

Beautiful!
Tears for your description of the memories...I've lost the gloves I knit while my dad was in the hospital, always makes me sad when I think of it.

Yolanda said...

Patti, I'm so sorry to hear about your gloves. The memories and associations I have with my knitting always amazes me.

tamknots said...

Congrats for completing such a special project. It is beautiful!

elsiroomom said...

Love the blanket. Love the photos. So sorry about your loss. Its interesting how we use knitting to "measure time".