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.