Where's Your Brain At?

In the most recent episode of Tea and Possibilities recent Tea and Possibilities podcast, Nikki talks about not completing a project, because that's not really where her brain's at.   At the moment, my brain's at my blanket.  I thought there was going to be a fight between me and the hot weather as to who lasted out the longest - but actually the weather only popped its head in for a couple of days. 

Last Saturday, I went on a group cycle ride of 11.5 miles, and really felt it when I came back!  I spent the afternoon crashed out on the sofa, with the blanket (as it currently stands), keeping my legs warm.  There was another one today, but it's a longer ride for the last weekend of the month.  I've decided against, as I need my energy for this evening. 

I've had to get over my aversion to the colour pink.  In fairness, it's not the colour that's the problem - it's the way it's always used to girl-ify everything.  You like fishing?  Have a grey fishing rod.  You're a woman who likes fishing?  Have a pink fishing rod.  You need a pen; here's a blue one.  You're a woman who needs a pen - here, have a special pink one.  The list is endless, but the worst I saw was the pink 'Big Red Bus Shape Sorter' from Early Learning Centre.  Because, of course we female Londoners have a completely different colour transport system to our male counterparts.

Anyway, I digress.....

The blanket as it stands has quite a lot of green and purple, and a pretty decent amount of blues.  To try and break it up a bit, I bought a whole load of My First Regia sock yarns in shades and patterns of pink.

The thing I love doing, is mixing and matching scraps of yarn - so a light pink ball and a dark pink ball will give me three squares; one plain in each shade of pink, and one square of pink stripes.  Factor in the patterned yarns and other scraps I had, and I had around balls for around seventeen squares, all stored in bags for each quarter, to try and make sure there's an even spread of colours.

Yarn received as a swap 

Then I received the swap to the yarns I sent off last weekend - and hey presto, another twenty or so balls are now ready to be knitted up. 

..... So, guess what I've been doing this last week? 

The blanket, as of 27th April 2018

Memories

My late grandmother, at her 90th birthday party

Whilst my grandmother was alive, she knitted me a scarf of scraps of yarn - all long and multicoloured, with tassels at the end.  At the time, I didn't realise what happens with garter stitch when you change colours (ie, you can see where the change happens) and I got rid of it.  I cannot tell you how much I now regret that decision.  (I'd also love to be able to get my hands on the pattern for the sweaters she knit us as kids).

In my time off, I've started knitting a memories blanket/sock yarn scrap blanket.  After doing some swatching, I decided that 50 was too few stitches for each square; 60 was too many.  As a kid, I remember my grandmother drilling into us that 7 x 8 = 56, after she had problems remembering it when she was a kid.  It's about one of the only multiplications I can easily remember, so of course it had to be the number of stitches I cast on for each square!

27th February 2018

I've been ripping along with it, and really happy at how it's going - until today, when I realised just how little I've actually completed, percentage wise.  The whole thing is due to be 280 squares in total; I've done less than a quarter of it so far.  I've also decided that I want each square to be different - although repetition of the same yarn is allowed.

2nd March 2018

There are some minis I have which are too similar to the squares which have already been knitted, so they're wrapped up, waiting to be used in a different part of the blanket.  I have enough full balls of sock yarn to carry me through the next three or four years, the scraps of which will be used in the blanket.  Until I have knitted some more socks, or bought some more minis, I feel that I've slowed down somewhat.  

9th March 2018

I did email somebody via Ravelry to see if she wanted to swap skeins (she didn't, as she has enough) and one of my friends is going to pass on any scraps of sock yarn she has left over, and occasionally lots come up on ebay, so there are ways to get the blanket finished, it's just likely to take longer than I was expecting.  Until then I'm going to carry on being as imaginative as I can in creating as many different mini skeins as possible, with the yarn I currently have. 

Oh, and the leftovers of the leftovers?  They're going to become another randomly striped scarf.