Well, not just this project, but also my cashmere blanket project. Really, there is no need for this much finishing. For two days I wove in the ends to my little baby blanket squares. Last night, I spent hours seaming the strips together. For those who don’t know, the best way, IMHO, to seam together a bunch of annoying squares is to:
– block the squares all to the same size, as much as possible. This may involve stretching some while trying to magically shrink others. If you have a good pattern, this isn’t so much an issue because the pattern for each square should have been written to take into account that cabling makes the fabric smaller / tighter and lace-work tends to stretch out. So your cabled squares should be more stitches and your lacework fewer. I cheated and sprayed the squares with water and then ironed them. Really I should have wet the cotton down but I don’t have time for that. Deadline to meet!
-Then seam the squares into strips of fabric like what you see here. I used mattress stitch. This will put the ugly edges onto the back of the fabric, which is great because I am having backing put onto the blanket. In fact, i may not even trim my ends off. More chance of them peaking through if I do that. So I have woven my ends in but left about 3/4 inch hanging on the wrong side of the fabric. This may annoy Olga. I should probably ask.
-Then seam the strips of fabric together. For me this means four seams for a total of five strips of fabric.
-Then re-block the blanket. This will help to keep your seams and tails where you put them and will also help it to lay flat, as your seams won’t lay flat until after they are blocked.
So I went to G Street Fabric and Joanne’s last night to find the fabric for the backing. I wasn’t happy with my G street selection, which meant going to Joannes. Here are the two that I came home with. While the stars will probably match the Care Bear theme that is going on in this child’s bedroom, I think that I personally like the polka dots better with the blanket style. What do you think?
In other news, I cast on the second Steeler Sock toe this morning on the metro. Since the trains were delayed horribly for no obvious reason (does the snow and ice reach underground tunnels? I think not! Get it together metro!) I was able to get almost all of the toe increases done while sitting underground somewhere between Rosslyn and Foggy Bottom. I believe that I may have been underwater. This freaks me out a little. Does that section bother anyone else? It is good that I had knitting to keep me sane. I feel bad for those who didn’t. The lights went out at one point and they couldn’t even read their papers anymore. Good thing I can knit in the dark. ‘Course the shocking yellow yarn probably helped.
I have a class this evening but am hoping to be able to knit on it before I crash tonight. And, since I finally finished closing out the books from 2008 (yippeeeee!!), I can probably spend much of tomorrow knitting it as well.
If you haven’t heard, the cashmere blanket folks are meeting at Buzz bakery from 10 am – 11 on Saturday. I will bring new blanket options with me. I am thinking something cabled but worked in one piece. What could be more lovely than having an entire cashmere blanket on your lap while you knit on it?!
Then from 11-noon is a knitting help session at Buzz as well. Plan to drop by, ask a question or get help. If you want a seat, come early! Cost is $10 and you pay when you get there.