Saturday, February 28, 2009
WIP o’ the Day - Log Cabin Fever
(oh, come on. everyone who knits this and blogs about it has to go there.)
So I know that I haven’t blogged in a year-and-a-half. Did you think I’d fallen off the face of the earth? Nope! (it just felt like I had. ouch.)
But it is again the cruelest time of the year here in New England and I’m dying to break up the monotony. And I’ve been knitting all this time, so I have lots to show you!
First up is the Log Cabin Afghan. As soon as Knit Picks came out with their Swish Worsted, a yummy superwash merino for cheap with awesome stepped colorways, I knew I had to use it for this. I really love the Mason-Dixon Knitting versions, but I lack imagination and couldn’t get the original quilt pattern out of my mind - how the shades stack up, the way the squares come together and form beautiful diamonds at the same time, those lovely tiny black squares in the center!
So here’s my version:
In this picture, half the squares are laid out in pattern - yes, it’s only half! It’s designed to be huge! It’s for those long winter nights watching TV on the sofa, when you can’t have some wimpy little throw, so holey your toes stick through, so skimpy it rides up and bares your ankles. This is meant for some serious popcorn-crunchin’, cocoa-sippin’ weather!
I started out with just one ball of black and one ball each in four shades of four sets of tones - blues, reds, greens, and browns. I figured if it wasn’t enough I’d just buy more, and that way it would end up being “affordable,” because I’d be purchasing the yarn over time. I didn’t figure in how incredibly frustrating it would be to run out of a color and have to wait for more. (remind me to rethink this strategy.)
Anyway, the squares turned out to be like crack - I could finish several bars over a commute and the garter-stitch was so easy I could do it while walking. But, the colors changed frequently enough that it kept me from getting bored. I even figured out some solutions to silly things that stuck in my craw, like how to eliminate blips when you switched colors, or how to pick up so you had an edge-stitch in a way that wouldn’t torque the square at all later. (I like a mild, picayune challenge.) And the fiber - the fiber! - it practically melted into stitches by itself.
I kept plugging along and got itchy enough that I wanted to start seaming. I like to use single-crochet to join afghan squares, not because I like to crochet (because I don’t - not-that-there’s-anything-wrong-with-that), but because I like the way it creates a firm but flexible and finished-looking join. But it’s frustrating to work, because you can’t do it continuously - there are a lot of stops-n-starts and therefore more loose ends to weave in - and you end up with lumps where the join-runs cross over each other.
Then I found a genius idea in some ravelry thread or another suggesting that, instead of horizontal and vertical runs, you join in a “stepped” pattern - start with the lowest-right square, join the square to its left then the square above it. Then, start at the bottom of the second-joined square and join the square to its left, then the square above it, then join that square to the edge of the third-joined square, then join that square to the square above that one. (Hard to describe - just think of going up a staircase viewed from the side.)
Keep working in this manner, stepping your way up the afghan, until you’re done. This method yields a tidier join because you never have to cross over yourself, and you make fewer cuts in your yarn. FTW!
I just finished the last of the squares, so at this point it’s just spending a cozy evening underneath it (big sacrifice!) and seaming the remaining squares. It already has been christened with cat-hair - it’s been resting itself on the back of the sofa while I awaited more yarn! (well, it was good motivation to finish, eh? fastest finish for an afghan I’ve ever had. only a year-and-a-half! I’m so proud.) *sniff*
