Rainbow Blanket: Blocked

It would be too boring (for you and me) to show as many photos as last time, so here's one blocked photo.

I'm pleased with the way it turned out, but somehow preferred the "fluffier" look when it first came off the needles. That's the beauty of it not being a garment; it doesn't have to fit a certain size, so can be what you want it to be.

I'm off to Istanbul for the weekend. See you soon!

FO: Rainbow Blanket

The Blanket's finished!

It's not blocked yet, or it would have straighter edges. It's not blocked because there's a major problem: IT'S NOT SQUARE! This is more than a glaring error.

I realised this was going to happen about half-way, but checked the pattern a million times and can't see that I've done anything wrong. The other projects on Ravelry are all square, so I've asked ravelers where I've gone wrong, and will report back.

DH says that I'm being rectanglist and should just embrace the rectangle. Let's see what the good people on Rav suggest.

Bear with me while I get this sorted, and hopefully I'll have some correct photos to show you.

My other problem is with Blogger: sometimes when I upload an image to a post the image rotates itself (e.g. below), and sometimes it doesn't. There's nowhere on the uploading page to change the properties ... aagghh!

At this point I should probably mention that it's one of my favourite things I've ever made. It was super easy, super fast and as any knitter would know, the colour changes really kept me going.

Easy, because although it looks really complicated, but it's not; that's the beauty of it. You just carry the yarn up the side as you swap the main colour and contrast colour every two rows. That's right, no intarsia or fair isle, it's really just slipped stitches which create the chain effect.

Fast, I'm not sure why because the cotton doesn't slip off the needles (in my case bamboo) like wool does. Although I had a break of several weeks waiting for the Ecru (main colour) to arrive, in total the knitting took about 10 days - not bad.

I absolutely love the colour work. Each colour moves on to the next in a subtle way (although I love the way the designer, Erika Flory chose to not go straight from yellow through to green, but in a way the colour moves back and forth before ending (for e.g., see the orange-peach-red-pink stretch). I hope this makes sense; I'm not sure I've articulated my thoughts very well here!

The other thing which I think really makes this project, is the designer's ingenius use of off-white for the main colour, which connects all of the colour links and borders the whole piece. Many would have just used a glaring bright white, but the Ecru is far more subtle.

Back view (still quite pretty):

Back detail:

I did make one mistake, though not according to the pattern, and it wouldn't have affected the shape of the blanket. If you look at other versions of the blanket, on each block of a separate colour, there are only three bands (separated by the chain pattern in the main colour) rather than four in my case; in other words, I changed colour four rows after other people did in their versions). This instruction was not in the pattern as far as I can see. I noticed this after I was about a quarter of the way through, and didn't want to go back. I also prefer the way I have done it, although the other versions look great too; both ways look good. Having checked and counted several times, I don't believe this would have afffected the length of the blanket, though please feel free to tell me otherwise.

Meanwhile, onto other things: when I finished the blanket last night I swatched for the Cardigan, the pattern for which I've also added to Ravelry with the aid of a helpful Sirdar pattern moderator. Again, sorry for the sideways view (I'll try to fix that). I'm just about to cast on.

Last night for dinner I made DH andmyself a nice summery Salad Niçoise (a favourite in my family) - yummy!:

FO: Shrug!

The shrug is finished! Here are some photo's pre-blocked; I'll get a photo of it on someone soon:

It was a very quick knit (I love using worsted weight on a 5mm needle). It was very easy, with a nice smattering of lace. The only bit I worried about beforehand was picking up the stitches around the body to work in rib, but in the end it was really easy.

I made one change; it's supposed to be knitted flat, but I prefer to knit everything in the round whenever possible, so I knitted the arms in the round.

I love it; perfect for keeping your shoulders warm on a cool summer night (though it's pretty hot here at the moment - for Britain, that is):

Last night DH and I went over to his parents to see his sister who's over from Dubai. My MIL made her yummy oriental chicken salad, and I brought dessert:

Summer Pavlova:

You might not be able to see very well from the photo but it's a very soft pavlova. I've made it lots of times, and it's a perfect summer dish when fruit is at its best. Basically, you turn the oven up to it's hottest setting, make your usual merringue recipe, spread it out into a rectangle on an oven tray, put it in the oven then immediately turn the oven off and leave overnight. Turn the merringue out onto a serving dish, cover with whipped double cream and the fruit of your choice. I used loganberries, blueberries and pomegranate seeds which I sprinkled with rosewater and lavendar sugar.

More roses!

Finally the Peaches & Creme in Ecru that I've been waiting for has arrived, so I can get on with the Rainbow Chain Carriage Blanket. I should have photos for you soon-ish.


By the way, in case anyone's wondering, Hammersmith Stitch N' Bitch is going really well. We meet every week now, which really suits me, and it's such a great group of people. It's great being able to share my hobby with such lovely people; plus I've learned quite a few good tips so far.


Two weeks ago we went to the pub, which we have decided to try to do once a month as it stays open later than the cafe. 12 people came, including a few newbies, each of them great fun and very talented. I think the high turnout may have been due to the promise of wine! Tuesday is now the highlight of my week!