Wednesday, November 26, 2008

A baby blanket for a wombat, in numbers



The plan was developed in stages. I went to the store, looked at yarn, and found what I wanted back in July some time.

Initial skeins of yarn: 5 (2 multicolored, 1 green, 1 purple, 1 yellow)

Skeins of yarn purchased by the end of the process: 9 (3 multicolored, 2 green, 2 purple, 2 yellow)

Dan and I tossed around ideas for how to use the yarn I bought. We each used colored pencils and graph paper to brainstorm. Dan's design ended up being the one I used. Then, he calculated how many of each kind of square I needed to knit (4 solo multi, 10 half multi half multi/purple, etc.)




Ideas drawn before determining a winner: at least 10

Squares in winning design: 64



Patterns used in squares: 64 different (each square a different pattern)



Patterns I made up myself, either stitch patterns I knew or ones I concocted using graph paper: approximately 40

Patterns I obtained from a pattern book: approximately 24

Squares with suit patterns I made up: 4 (1 heart, 1 club, 1 diamond, 1 spade)



Size of each square: 6 by 6 inches (approximate; some squares were slightly larger and some slightly smaller)



Size of blanket, finished: 4 feet by 4 feet (after blocking, it appears to be somewhat bigger)



Hours spent knitting blanket: approximately 100. Maybe more.



Places I knitted: the couch, my national conference during sessions, hotel rooms, airplanes.


(Loki liked to help, too.)

Hours spent stitching blanket together: approximately 6



Time spent blocking: 1 hour, plus 15 hours drying time



Time spent finishing (crochet border): 2 hours



The yarn is machine washable and dryable and I hope I have constructed it such that it will be fully functional and easy to care for. Mostly I hope that it helps keep a very special baby warm through a cold and damp Bay Area winter.

Made with love,
Emily, who met his parents on the internet

7 comments:

Sara said...

Oh wow, I am way impressed with the suit patterns! Amazing!

Monkey McWearingChaps said...

Amazing.

Inquiring minds want to know-is that Loki or Petra under there? I'm putting my money on Loki.

Hillary said...

wow - you are a knitting rockstar!

Anonymous said...

AND it is the softest yarn EVER. We seriously can't stop cuddling it (which was especially awkward when I took it to work to show my knitting coworker).

I'm going to print out this entry and put it in Wombat's scrapbook.

Dan said...

Monkey - You'd win your bet. Loki, true to his name, is always in the midst of everything. Petra doesn't get up on the bed these days.

Crafty Mama said...

This is a truly beautiful baby blanket. You are so talented! I am just learning how to knit and appreciate all of the intricacies that you have going on here. :)

Anonymous said...

GORGEOUS! You are so sweet (and talented!).