Taiyo Blanket Update

I have 5.5 squares done, 3 big, (11X13), and 2.5 smaller (9X9).

This is definitely helping with my Taiyo addiction, I keep saying, well, see, it could be another scarf. Which helps me rationalize the fact that depending on the amount of skeins I use, this could be a very, very expensive blanket. But it will be so cool! So will be the little one if I don't combine the squares, I figure I'll decide that in a few more squares... Or before I hook them together anyway.

The big squares with the next 5 skeins in waiting.

My main problem is I have gauge problems. Not huge ones, but for the sake of sanity, I'm assuming that all the squares don't have to be equal in size, that's what blocking is for! I could be wrong here, but please don't ruin my delusions.

Easy As Pie

I bet a lot of people don't realize how easy pie really is, but that's another post when I might reveal our pie crust secret (which isn't really a secret).

You know what else is easy? These little squares. I have always wanted to make a quilt. My mom and my sister are champion afghan makers, but I lack their skills with crochet (my blankets, or actually scarves end up strangely shaped to say the least) and used to churn out complex afghans and baby blankets on a practically weekly basis. Now, I hate HATE acrylic yarn, I can't stand the squeak, and before I got into luxury yarn, I thought that was all there was (what a dark sad world I lived in..) So while I was still spinning but not knitting, I briefly tried quilting. I have no idea why I thought this would work because I hate to sew. You see, when I was little, my sister was in dance, and drama. Our weekends and evenings were spent sewing outfits for her, her friends, and anyone else that needed an outfit RIGHT THEN cause the play starts TOMORROW! I associate sewing with hot brightly lit rooms, lost pins and needles we'd step on, and ripping out seams for hours. I also associate it with cutting out and pinning patterns, typically incorrectly so I'd have to redo it. I was especially good at cutting off darts that just seemed like stupid pattern errors. I can sew, but oh how I hate it!

However, for some reason I thought quilting looked fun, easy, and artistic. Uh huh. Now I did get fabric (along with sewing I also detest fabric stores, and have a panic attack within 20 minutes, speed shopping is necessary, so this was a feat in and of itself) purchased along with a rotary cutter, and even a few squares completed. In this attempt I found out a couple really important things: 1 - I am not a perfectionist when it comes to crafts. This is an issue with such things as quilt squares, where everything has to fit right. 2 - I seriously do hate to sew. Now, I still have around 20 pairs of jeans, plus a bunch of cut out (into random sizes of course) pieces of denim and someday when my sister and I have time, we're going to make a denim quilt. She for some reason likes to sew, probably because she was at play or dance practice while I was locked in the room with mom sewing.

This knitting squares though is right up my alley - I like to knit, I love Noro, and they just appear. I finished the first one in just a few hours of knitting, and the 2nd one I got done yesterday while watching my nephews fill out math papers (another story for another day). I realize these are 2 different sizes, this was one skein and I was experimenting. I am now, either going to use both sizes in the same quilt, OR, I am making 2 quilts. I am not sure which, I am letting my knitting zen control this, and just knitting for the sake of knitting.

Neptune just believes in blankets. Preferably the heated variety.

My Favorite Color

Sparkly Green Batt from Knittyandcolor on Etsy

Is Green - Deep emeraldy beautiful green. Green

Bright sparkly pink and orange batt from knittyandcolor

Or, maybe it's PINK! Bright fuschia gorgeous pink!

New braids of roving from thepaintedtiger.com Don't they just make you happy?!

 Or maybe every color of the rainbow! Red, yellow, purple, blue, silver, green.. How can you have a favorite? They're all gorgeous, and they all have their own purpose and place in the world!

My first shawl!

And speaking of color - the beautiful Noro Taiyo scarf, finished with it's crocheted border and blocked. Sorry, I couldn't afford a model, the couch volunteered.

Closeup of the border

Neptune and Merc are wonderful blocking weights.

This is extremely sensitive and hard work!

It's Our Little Secret...

Shhhhh! Don't tell anyone. Be very, very quiet..

I think I'm starting to like to knit.

Ok, ok, I think I'm starting to like to knit.

No one could be more surprised than me. Really. I have always knitted out of a sense of guilt. All this yarn, and no one using it in a creative manner. It oozed guilt. I mean, a spinner that doesn't knit or crochet? Kind of weird. I spin for the joy of creating art, but to most people yarn is utilitarian. Sure it's pretty, it's for a purpose.

But then, I found Noro. Noro Taiyo, in these mesmerizing colors. That are begging to be made into something. I started sneaking home balls of Noro. Surely no one would notice the labels if I mixed it into the bins of handspun..

Scarf #1, the start of the addiction

And then I found circular needles. Because I've always, always lost needles, typically halfway through a project.

Scarf #2 - Knitted long ways, my Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor scarf

I started knitting scarves, I joked I'd have a scarf in every color of Taiyo. They were my take along projects, sometimes sitting in bags for weeks, sometimes finished in just a few days.

Number 3 - finished at the ocean, lots of errors, but so pretty! and peaceful! And Taiyo-y

 On the last trip, I finished my latest scarf, and then something clicked. The next scarf that I started (out of one of the 6 skeins of Taiyo purchased on the trip), morphed magically into a shawl. A triangle shawl no less. Yes people, I broke through the limit of the rectangle. And I liked it! Yes, I liked it!

Picture missing due to secret project taking place using Shawl

After the shawl was done, which turned into a slight obsession, I started on the next. I found a pattern on Ravelry. And I figured it out. And I am sticking to it. I am using a pattern! And I am liking it! I've even picked out what pattern to use next.

Multi-Directional scarf in the works

Yes, I am a knitter! Maybe someday I will even make another sock! A sweater! A lace cape! Ok, or maybe I'll stick to my scarves. But I have discovered patterns. I am a knitter that follows patterns. I am proud.

I am surrounded by warm colorful scarves - in 90 degree heat!

I think I can....

1 - Eventually finish another sock (I keep getting distracted)

2 - Figure out how to make this

3 - Resist buying more fiber (in case the world runs out of batts) so that Rosie the spinning wheel can come home.

4 - Warp my baby loom so I can start to weave. A bag! I am so totally weaving bags!

5 - Knit a scarf out of every color of Noro Taiyo

One must have goals after all.