Blanket Statement

Ever since we had the Speed Knitting contest featuring the Hemlock Ring Blanket (Ravelry link), I've been a bit blanket-crazy.

The Hemlock Ring Blanket is based on a vintage doily pattern, but it's sized up and knit in rustic wool yarn. When you catch the blanket bug, it's difficult to break free - now I've knit a Girasole blanket (Ravelry link) in stash yarn, finished my own "hemmie" in WotA Persimmon Heather, and I just finished up this bad boy in WotA Sapphire Heather.

With just under 16 balls of WotA, I was able to make a blanket that's over 6 feet across. The pattern is Meg Swansen's "Super Spiral Shawl" (Ravelry link) from A Gathering of Lace. It looks complicated, but the spiral is broken up into eight sections, and you add the optional mesh pattern to every other section in order to get this effect. It's only made up of yarn overs, k2tog, and stockinette, so it would even work as a slightly-beyond-beginner pattern (once you got past the initial circular cast on).

It's great movie-watching knitting, since the lace pattern is only a two-row repeat and you're knitting it on US size 10 needles. I didn't care for the lace edging in the original pattern, but I knew that I liked the edging that I had used on my previous Girasole blanket and used that instead. It's a little chunkier, which fits the nature of the worsted weight wool yarn I chose.

I have one more blanket that I'm planning in WotA Firecracker Heather, and then I'll have a nice cozy collection of wool blankets that I can display together.

Pattern: Super Spiral Shawl (Ravelry link) from A Gathering of Lace
Size: as big as possible. It did take most of 3 balls of WotA just to make the edging that I substituted, so plan ahead!
Yarn: Wool of the Andes in Sapphire Heather, 16 balls.
Needles: KP Options Nickel Interchangeable needles, US size 10

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Comment by cellogirl on July 4, 2009 at 9:18am: Having the hemi almost finished--I'm looking for lace project #2 and your beautiful circular shawl looks like a good one for this novice?? Reading the chart on p.82 of Meg's pattern, It looks like solid lace, but the picture looks like everyother section is lace--what am I not reading correctly?
Is there any chance that KP could carry the Girasole pattern as a designer's special--it is beautiful, but pay pal seems difficult?

Comment by typhoonyoon on April 10, 2009 at 9:19pm: What a beautiful work. You inspire me to try my hands on something challenging, only if to give it a try and may not finish it for a long long time. Thank you. ~Juliana

Comment by EmilyVictoria on April 7, 2009 at 4:52pm: It's really beautiful, and I love the picture of it on the grass!

Comment by Peggy Stuart on April 7, 2009 at 10:57am: Alison: Truly incredible! I would love one of those in Pumpkin. Hmmmmm....

Comment by Puffy Griffinclaw on April 6, 2009 at 4:28pm: I looks just so lush, very elegant. The problem with the blanket "bug" is that they aren't very portable while you're working on them. I had that bug last summer when there were fewer evening meetings, sports, etc. so I had evenings to myself & got DVDs of the entire series Upstairs Downstairs and watched every evening. Even then, only got through two blankets! They were so big, I could not carry them around & had to keep another small project to carry around.

Too bad we don't use doilies any more, the patterns were so pretty.

Comment by Knit4Many on April 6, 2009 at 3:06pm: Alison: Great job, not only did you get me to ooh and ahh once again but also my little man. He thinks it is so cool! He has named it the whirlpool blanket.

Comment by Meshanna on April 6, 2009 at 2:50pm: Thank you for that tidbit about the Comfy! I live in the Rocky Mountains of Arizona, and it DOES get quite cold here. We even get snow! It snowed just a couple of nights ago actually. But, it does also get quite hot here in the summer too. I have been trying to plan out my summer knitting and have been looking at the Cotton yarns here at KP. I haven't been too thrilled with cotton yarns I have used in the past. From what I read the Comfy and Shine might be different though. I just ordered color cards for both the Comfy and Shine in worsted and sport weight. Have you used the Shine much? Did you like it? Or do you like the Comfy better and stick with that?? It is so hard to buy yarn online when you can't feel it!

I wish KP offered sample sizes of all their yarns. Just enough to do a swatch with to get the feel of how the yarn feels, behaves, and drapes.

Comment by Alison on April 6, 2009 at 2:21pm: You're right about WotA - it's not machine-washable. I think it depends on your household; in my house, we have an elderly cat that yaks on the occasional blanket, but for the most part blankets don't get heavy use. When my 100%, not-superwash wool blankets get soiled, I hand wash them in the bathtub with some wool wash and gentle "squishing" to clean the dirty areas.

For households with kiddos/pets/pizza-loving-friends, Swish and Comfy are excellent washable options. They can stand up to a lot of abuse, and you can wash them in the machine (preferably on a gentle cycle) and then tumble dry them on low. Comfy is one of my favorite KP yarns, and a friend of mine just bought a boatload of it in Pomegranate to make the BrooklynTweed Girasole blanket.

Comment by Meshanna on April 6, 2009 at 2:13pm: Alison, I am curious.... I am new to the idea of knitting with natural fibers. I live in a remote area and the only "LYS" anywhere around here is Walmart and even that is quite a drive, aka mostly cheap acrylics.....
From what I understand, the Wool of the Andes isn't machine washable and is feltable. I can understand the possibility of handwashing a smaller item, but how will you wash that large of a blanket if it gets soiled?? I have 5 kids and I can't imagine anything NOT getting soiled! lol Would it be better to stick with the washable fibers for something as large as a blanket?
I have crocheted many, many blankets, but until I saw this blanket, I hadn't even been tempted to try a blanket in knitting!

Comment by ruthmci on April 6, 2009 at 1:25pm: Beautiful, Alison. You are inspiring me to try another doily-into-blanket pattern. I think I'd like a larger one than the Hemlock one too.