slinking back

Bad Beverlyanne. It's been three months since I last posted. In fact, I now have to go back and read that post, because I've forgotten what it was about.

Oh. It was about a stupid Clapotis that I shouldn't even have made. But the post before that was about the subject of today's posting, The Rosy Pinwheel. Yes, I changed its name from Devil's Pinwheel to Rosy in honor of my granddaughter, Rosie. And here it is in long view: And a delightful close up that shows its lovely lace border bring knitted:

Ok. It's not all that lovely, but as you can see from the top photo, it's almost a circle.

This blanket gave me no end of trouble, and I think it was because it was June and I was really, really sick of knitting. The same thing happened to me last summer - I barely knit and I didn't blog - but I thought that was because I moved my mother to a nursing home after she broke her arm in July and my daughter spent the month of August in the hospital. And gave birth at the end of her stay. I am grateful that nothing like that happened this summer (except for the birth), but I still didn't want to knit or blog.

Nanette of Knitting in Color, one of the most creative knitters around, made me feel better with this July post. In it she explains how she never feels like knitting in the summer, and she gave a number of truly inspiring examples of work that made me feel that, yes, I was still a knitter.

Getting back to the blanket, it turned out fine, but I had to buy more yarn to knit the edging. It must be the yarn, Dream in Color Classy, that lacked staying power. The lovely and gracious Helen of Chronic Knitting Syndrome, who has made some stunning pinwheels (this is my favorite), kindly gave me the pattern for the lace edging. The fact that it doesn't look like it should (straight rather than slanted) is my fault, but I like it anyway. She also explained how to knit it directly onto the edge, which I would never have figured out on my own. So Helen, thank you a million times.

Unfortunately the blanket was finished in the summer, so Rosie hasn't really needed it yet. Someday, I am sure that she will be glad to be covered by a nice, soft wool blanket.

the devil's pinwheel

Since my granddaughter Rosie has been spending more time at our house, I wanted to have a nice knitted blanket for her naps and sleepovers. The pinwheel was in the back of my mind. I perused Ravelry and decided that the Oat Couture short row pinwheel was the most refined. I especially liked the knit- in lace border. I actually went out and bought the pattern, an unusual action for me. Here is its scanned self:

The Ravelry pages showed lots of stellar examples of this blanket. I was particularly taken with this one , which convinced me that this was a project that uses variegated yarn to advantage.

I spent hours shopping on line, and narrowed down my choices. Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted was on my short list (the same yarn as in the afghan on Ravelry), but I thought it too pricey. Wanting instant gratification, I shopped locally (Mosaic Yarn Studio) and discovered that Dream in Color Classy, while not cheap, had more yardage than Lorna's Laces, so I could get four skeins rather than five to make up the 1,000 yards of worsted that the pattern calls for. See the yarn on the right. The colorway is called Ruby River.

I bought the four skeins, and here is where things started to go horribly wrong. First off, I found the yarn, machine washable merino, to be somewhat stiff in garter stitch. It wasn't scratchy, but at five stitches per inch, the correct gauge, it felt like a hot pad. Next, and worst, my yarn was disappearing at an alarming rate. To spare you the gory details, the upshot is that I frogged this project THREE times until I was at a gauge of four stitches per inch and had achieved an acceptable drape to the fabric.


I had knit up the first of the four skeins when a cold hand gripped my heart. By the size of the section I had knit, I would need just less than double the yarn I had purchased: that is 2,000 yards rather than the 1,000 specified in the pattern. WHAT? Even if I could get more of the colorway (doubtful), I didn't want to spend $150 on this project. And what is up with this pattern? Others on Ravelry did not seem to have this problem. But as a knitter, I usually need less yarn than specified, not twice as much. Mystery still unsolved.


My pinwheel failure was made all the more poignant when I read the blog of my fellow knitter Woolie of Wool Enough and Time. She made the most adorable short-row pinwheel cushion cover out of scraps. Kudos to Woolie, but grrrr.


My story is on its way to a happy ending though. I decided to make the yarn over pinwheel instead. After three or four failed attempts to start this project (five stitches on double pointed needles), I am on my way to producing a fine blanket for Rosie. This one is in stockinette, and I must say that the yarn seemed to smile at me as I released it from garter stitch. And I think I'll have a skein left over.