Blankie Status: 7

Blanket: FINISHED.

Katie: Not pregnant any longer, but I think we can agree that having your baby 3 weeks early is a curve ball no knitter could have managed to hit.

Number of stitches on the needle: NONE

Number of skeins remaining: A big fat Zero.

Number of skeins used: All ten.  The eight I thought I would use, the two insurance skeins, and yes.  I ran out.  I fell short just two metres from the end, and broke down and used  two metres from the skeins that weren’t the same dye lot.  It ended up being just a few rows, and in the grand scheme of the enormity of this blankie, it doesn’t matter a whit.  I’d dare anyone to find those few stitches that aren’t absolutely perfect – I can find them, of course, but I have insider information about where they are, and there’s no way I’ll be pointing them out to anyone, never mind a six day old baby.  He’ll figure out soon enough that his Auntie is imperfect, and this will all make sense.  Life is imperfect, and so this is an appropriate beginning.

blanketbed 2015-07-15

Last night when I finally finished the knitting, I pulled out the provisional cast on I began the edging with, and grafted the two live sets together. The blanket is now seamless, which is highly unrepresentative of life in general, but, well – not everything is a metaphor.  I gave it a wash, and laid it out to dry, patting everything into place, making the lines straight, and generally admiring the thing.  This blankie has been on the needles since the end of May, and I admit that with it done, I felt a little empty.  I wasn’t sure what I’m supposed to knit now. I’ve got a pair of socks on the needles (like always) and I picked up those out of reflex, but there is no “big” project happening, and I didn’t quite know what to do about that.   I worked on the socks to take the edge off.

Today I’m still feeling “vague” in the knitting department, like I have an epic project hangover, so I’m going to knit a hat. It should be just the thing – a project that can be completed in hours instead of months? Yes please.

Tomorrow, a certain small gentleman will be swathed in (more) wool.