Dudes, It's Like Crack

Not just knitting itself, although I can't argue that there is some serious addictive stuff going on with the entire knitting experience (go on, just TRY to convince me that you've never been caught in a store, huffing cashmere...or that you don't start getting twitchy if you've not handled fiber for more than a few days). But no, this crack is in the form of the Boku blanket which I wasn't going to start yet but which refused to take anything but "you are the most fabulous blanket ever" for an answer.

See, I finished this over the weekend:

Miners blanket number 5, in all its glory. I wish you could feel how warm and wonderful it is. Call me kooky (you won't be the first, I assure you) but I swear that when I'm edging the blankets and they're resting on me, I can feel the difference between ordinary blankets, and these ones made with love by so many wonderful people. It's like they're infused with love, and you can't help but feel it. Seriously.

But to get back to the crack story.

Since I only have one more miners blanket to go, and since I've made each one over the course of a weekend, and since I have two weekends between now and my stated goal of mailing them the Monday after Thanksgiving, I decided to reward my hard work by making a square or two of the Boku blanket. I thought I might enjoy it, or I might hate it. I thought I could stop any time I wanted to. I didn't think I would need to go out hunting for a wool patch in order to put it down long enough to work and sleep. I was such an innocent.

Folks, I ADORE this blanket. All 7.5 squares of it. I love the yarn, I love the construction, I love the fact that each square is started by picking up stitches along another one so no seaming. I'm in heaven. It's kind of like when I first learned to knit and a nice lady (whom I like to call "my dealer") gave me some needles and yarn and I went home and knitted obsessively. Seriously--I can remember waking up in the morning and picking up needles and yarn to knit away on a tiny little swatch of stockinette--slightly grimy from handling--just to prove to myself that I still knew how and the wonderful knowledge hadn't run out of my brain during the night. I still get that thrill over 20 years later, although now I do actually get up and get showered and dressed and stuff (Mr. K appreciates these details--it's the little things that make a marriage work) and, whereas then I was making a swatch without a project, now I make all manner of projects without swatches. This suggests that I like to swear at yarn and tear things back repeatedly...which seems unlikely but will have to do until I find another explanation.

Anyway, that's how its been with the Boku. I pick it up every chance I get. I knit at lunch. I knit on the recumbant exercise bike. And, just lately, I knit on the elliptical, which is a fine place to knit if you have no objection to sharp stabbing pain between your shoulderblades and spending the rest of the day doing a fair impression of Quasimodo. But man....this pattern. It goes together like a jigsaw puzzle. The colors are beautiful. Everyone who sees it catches their breath (and not, I'm assured, because they were terrified or trying desperately to think of a polite way to say "What in the name of all that's wooly possessed you to create that monstrousity? And what the hell IS it?").

When I started, I thought I would use all the different colorways. However, in working on it, I've realized that the color runs are long and the squares are small so no two squares really look all that much alike with just one colorway. After careful consideration, I decided that using all the colorways was likely to look as though a clown just threw up a kaleidoscope, so I stuck with two: one with autumn golds and greens and pale oranges with some purple thrown in, and one in many greens. I adore it. See what you think:

This photo shows pretty true to color on my monitor, except the oranges are subtler in real life. Oh, and the shape looks all weird because I just picked up the stitches for a square in the center bordering two other ones which pulled it right out of shape. Here it is closer up and with kinda washed out color--I have no idea why I would think you want to see a lousy photo of it....I think it's like those people who say "This tastes funny--here, taste!" We want someone to share our pain:
The thing is made in diagonal rows, so I'm switching colorways with each diagonal row. The diagonal of two green ones and the one in the top right are one colorway; the others are, naturally, the other colorway. See what I mean about the variety with even one of them?

Before I started this, though, I did manage to finish some lovely socks (they were my exercise bike project once I realized miners blankets and exercise bikes apparently have some sort of age old fued and don't work well together at all....the bike likes to try to eat the blanket) from the beautiful yarn that Celtic Jo gave me. Jo, what do you think? And will you tell me more about it? Did you dye it yourself? It's unbelievably yummy, as you can see:

It's a Little Arrowhead Lace pattern that's both fun to make and really impressive looking.

Okay, I'm off to hold my precious....er....finish that square on the Boku. Yeah. That's it. This weekend I'll finish the last miners blanket and then I'll get them all wrapped and mailed off. Don't you love knowing that some families are going to get such a wonderful surprise? I know the best good deeds are done anonymously...but I still wish I could be a fly on the wall when they see firsthand how many people care.