smalls

Lately, I've been doing small projects, using up little bits of leftover yarn . Specifically, I made a set of baby wash cloths (or warsh rags as I can't seem to resist typing). Some are pictured above, some are pictured below.

In all, I made six, based on the squares of the Louisa Harding cot blanket that I call Neverwhere after the somewhat gross Neil Gaiman novel. As in Neverwhere, I added the cat and flower of my own design to the heart and star designs proposed by Ms Harding. I used the established 37 stitch/49 row format with the moss stitch edging, but I used worsted instead of dk weight yarn and #7 needles instead of #5.

The resulting squares turned out to be 7" square instead of 6.5 x 6.75" as in the Neverwhere version. I like this size better for wash cloths and maybe better for a blanket due to the squareness. One square turned out a tad bigger. That was the brown one made from the stray ball of Knit Picks Main Line that I test knit a few weeks ago. This is a thicker worsted weight yarn, perhaps too bulky for a baby cloth.

This little project turned out to be a good exercise in the further testing of yarn. The Knit Picks Comfy (pink) that I swatched along with Main Line worked up very soft and comfy-feeling, but it didn't block well as the photo above shows. Too much acrylic (25%) in the mix? I don't know. It reminds me of Lion Brand Wool Ease in this regard. It would work better if the squares were sewn together. I love the color though.

The yarn that really surprised me was Cascade Pima Silk (ivory). I had made a sweater from it at a gauge of 4.5 stitches to the inch (the recommended gauge), and really disliked the fabric: not enough body and too bumpy and uneven. On this exercise however, I got 5 stitches to the inch. What a striking difference! The fabric is smooth, firm, but not too, and silky. I can't wait to try it again.

finished object alert

I have. Finished. An. Object. The reason I've amazed myself with this is that I am working on two endless projects: the small-gauge full skirt and the Kimono Shawl. The shawl is about half finished, the skirt maybe one forth to one third. Laura, the Scarlet Knitter has a rule of three though. She generally works on three projects at once.


When I read that, I realized that three is the perfect number and that I too usually work on three at once. One of the three projects has to be a smaller, finishable one, and, it recently came to me, should be portable. So I made a little blanket for a baby in little squares. Here it is being blocked:

Here is a close up:
Here is the Ravelry page. And here is how it looks in the original from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms by Louisa Harding:

I think the designer's yarn choice is brilliant. The faded colors of Green Mountain Spinnery Cotton Comfort (wool/cotton blend, dk weight) of similar intensity give it a mellow, vintage/organic look. However, I had leftovers: Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere (dk) leftover from the Bandersnatch sweater, and I used it ALL up. I love putting leftover yarn to good use. I also love this yarn. It is soft and warm like worn flannel pajamas.

I edged the blanket with Knit Picks Cotlin, a cotton/linen dk (see previous post), mitering rather than overlapping the garter stitch edging. The yarn is soft and knits up very well - a Knit Picks winner. The edging did not work perfectly as to pick ups along the row edges. The first time I followed the rule of three stitches per each four rows, and it was too many. For the second edge I reduced the stitches, and it was better, but still a little flaring. Both side blocked out well though. I could have made the border wider, but I came to the end of the yarn.

The squares, which measure 6.75 inches wide and 6.5 inches long, knit up in no time, but took a while to put together. The squares are butted together and whip stitched from the back into columns, leaving a ridge between them. The expert knitter who made the sample in Louisa Harding's book somehow avoided the ridge. I would like to know how to do that. The columns are mattress-stitched together with no ridge, but leaving a visible seam in my version. It could have been better, but it doesn't look bad in person.

I used Louisa Harding's charts for the star, heart, and plain square, but I designed my own cat and flower squares. These were fun and easy to chart. You can knit a picture of anything.