Saturday, February 14, 2009

Warm As Toast


Next in the guest room series...

I'm a sucker for crazy, colorful afghans that look like they were made out of all the random balls of leftover yarn that have collected in Granny's knitting bag. I've had this one tucked away for years, just waiting for the right place to use it. I think the colors are especially appealing AND it has a lot of wool in it, so this is a special one!




Having spent all that time in the attic, the blanket needed some freshening up. I checked my copy of Watkins Household Hints that I bought back in September. It's advice: "Feed the blanket through a power wringer several times, dipping into the suds each time. After five wringings, the soil has been pressed out."

Assuming my blanket wasn't THAT filthy, I used the delicate cycle on my washing machine and Woolite.




After a time in the dryer, set to fluff, my blanket emerged rejuvenated! It's softer, it smells nice, and it's warm as toast.

Now tell me, does anyone know how to do this stitch with the little jags poking into the previous color? I just love it, but I have no idea where to even start looking.

7 comments:

the mighty guin said...

Looks like a simpler version of the spike stitch. There's a great example of it here: http://crochetme.com/yarn-fiber/animal-fiber
(scroll to last project, it's a pillow). The link below the image explains the stitch.
Hope that helps!

Anonymous said...

Oh you took me down memory lane with the mixed up colors! My Gramma Daisy always made my mittens and socks like that. No pair ever matched since they were all the smallest scraps. Sometimes for the others she would divide the balls and make a matched pair but I liked mine better. :) Thank You for triggering the memory.

jessica said...

SUPER cute! I love it! And if you ever figure out what that stitch is, it has me thinking all sorts of great winter accessories :-).

Janet McKinney said...

What a lovely blanket.

the stitch is real simple - it is a slip stitch.

When you change colour, you knit as many stitches as you want between the spikes, then slip (just pass the next stitch to the right hand side needle without knitting) the next stitch.

It looks like your knitter has done this for 4 rows. You can slip the stitch for as many rows as you like - it will just adjust the length of the spike.

Once you get the basic idea - you have heaps of fun with how many rows you do with the slip stitch, the pattern of the spikes, or even if when you change colour the second time, you go back to the original colour, and it looks like bricks.

Have fun

Robin (RsIslandCrafts) said...

I think it is the spike stitch also. I found this fun blanket over on Flickr...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/katrinkles/2811929211/

carrot people said...

Test this out - but I think to make a slipped stitch that tall, you're going to need to add extra yarn. So knit to where you want the "spike" then wrap the yarn around the needle once or twice (like a yarn over) before knitting the next stitch. On following rows, slip (don't knit, just pass the loop) the stitch until you get to the row where you want it to end. Then knit it in (you'll also probably have to do a K2tog so you don't make the fabric wider each time you do this).

Christy said...

I love it!!!!
Reminds me of grandma's house.