OK, last night I watched Pieces of April (I liked it, sweet movie) with my DH, and all the while knitted on the blanket to end all blankets. The mother of all blankets. That is a perfect name for a token of love from a mother (me) to a beloved DD. In chilly Connecticut, she needs something to drag over to her desk and wrap up in while she does her homework or her reading.
Can you sense how soft and cushy this blanket is already??? Lion Thick and Quick is a great compromise between the love of wooly things and the need for washability.
Here are the sections in close up so you can better see the patterns.
This gray is simple garter stitch, and is actually darker like the picture at the top.
See top photo for a better rendering of the dark maroon it really is. This block is in purl ridge, a really simple pattern. Row 1: Knit; Row 2: Purl; Row 3 K1 P1 across; Row 4: Purl.
This first block is in that fisherman's tweed off-white. Just K7 P7 all the way. I don't know if I love it, but it is interesting.
Here is the most recent block I have underway:
It is a checkerboard pattern, quite easy unless I stop paying attention, 56 stitches in K4 P4 for five rows, followed by P4 K4 for five rows, and again. I think I already messed it up but it's so hard to see what I'm doing with black yarn!!
This will end one set of blocks, and then I'll start the second set of four, and if it's big enough, that will be the blanket (sew it together and voila) but if it's still not wide enough, I'll knit the third set and set that together too. It's good when making gifts for teenaged people that if they don't truly LOVE the gift and intend to use it, one can politely offer to relieve them of the albatross, in which case I would have a great blanket all my own. :^) But actually I think she will like it. Let's all cross our fingers and toes.
Please send up a prayer to the knitting gods to make more time for Stacie to get out the needles. It keeps me sane!
Shout-out to Hell's Bells--what's this about "swings and roundabouts"?! Sounds too much like fun. ;^)