Hemlock Ring Blanket

My latest FO:
100_1960

Pattern: Hemlock Ring Blanket by Jared Flood
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in Chino, 3 skeins
Needles: KP Options US 8, with 40 inch cable. If I had a bigger cable, I definitely could have used it--this was a squish at the end!
Modifications: None, really--unless you count knitting an extra 2 repeats of the pattern. This was necessary given my smaller needle size, though!

This blanket is destined for my school's silent charity auction to benefit an orphanage in Honduras (where our grade 11 students go on their annual service trip). Jared was kind enough to give me permission to knit his lovely pattern for sale for this good cause! For those in the London (Ontario) area, the auction is Friday night (Feb. 29). Let me know if you're interested in more details!

And in case anyone needs another lesson in the wonders of blocking....this was probably the most striking change I've seen in any project. I think this was due to the way the blanket was scrunched up on my needles for so long, basically in a bag shape. After casting off I had this:
100_1952
It's no wonder the students who saw my knitting this were incredibly skeptical that it would become a blanket!

Pinned out for blocking (a royal pain, as it was just a hair too wide for the bed I block on, and of course the round shape and scalloped edging was really fun to block!), it stretched to just over 4 feet in diameter:
100_1954

I'm trying to be a more focused blogger, so my goal was to JUST blog about the Hemlock, but I had a question in my comments last time from Kat about my PomPom socks. I realized that I never blogged about them, so here they are quickly:
100_1961
Pattern: Ridgeline master pattern from New Pathways. Garter toe, plain heel, and the cuff from the Home and Hearth pattern.
Yarn: Regia PomPon, 2 skeins
Needles: KP Fixed Circular, 2.5 mm

These socks are great fun! THe little pompom bits are soft and squishy, so they are comfortable to wear. This was the first pair of socks I cast on from New Pathways, and they made me an almost instant convert to Cat Bordhi's ideas. They fit my foot perfectly! I wore them to school on Valentine's Day and insisted on taking off my shoes and showing my socks to all my students. They keep telling me they want to knit socks, but so far no one has followed through. I had a few girls start baby socks last year, but they never finished them. We shall see if I can convert any new sock knitters before June!

Now....less than 2 weeks until March Break, but they will be a crazy 2 weeks. I would love to promise some small posts about various little things in the meantime, but no guarantees....I'll see you when I next surface for air!

Comments

knitty_kat said…
They are SO awesome. I need to find some of that yarn!!
Kai said…
Your Hemlock is gorgeous! Glad you got permission to auction it.

Love the socks too!! :)
Anonymous said…
Mmm Hemlock! Beautiful.

Also! New Pathways is absolutely fabulous, isn't it--the socks may look insane off the foot, but on the foot they're the best ever.
knitty_kat said…
Ok, I was totally skimming when I read this post the first time . . I didn't even SEE the Hemlock. Holly crap that's awesome.

I hope the auction went well!!
Anonymous said…
Your hemlock is really beautiful. I bet it is warm and snuggly.