There is nothing more exciting than finishing a project. Starting a new one comes in a close second but finishing is just such a rush! I finished two long-term projects plus one tiny short-term one just in the past couple of weeks and it is very exciting.
Last week, I finished a blanket that I have been working on for just over a year. It started in early 2022 when a friend’s son was set to turn eighteen. A throw blanket seemed like a nice gift and I had been sort of wanting to make a Mario Pixel Blanket for a while. Of course, every time I make a blanket with motifs, I enjoy doing the blocks and then hate seaming it together and even more, weaving in the seemingly infinite ends. I know this and yet I have done it multiple times and keep subjecting myself to it. Anyway, this son of a friend is a big video game fan and his favorite character is Luigi so I changed up a few colors and decided to dive in. I did not make the squares exactly how they are in the pattern since that seemed like it would take too long and be too big, so I made granny squares with just two rounds, measuring almost three inches on each side. I figured I could use leftover Red Heart Super Saver yarn from my Among Us projects but as I recall, I did have to buy some additional yarn in order to have enough plus the skin color, which I did not have to start with. Still, that is pretty cheap stuff and it was hardly much of an expense although in retrospect, since I spent so much time making the blanket, perhaps I should have invested more in materials.
I fiddled with background colors a bit on my chart and finally came up with a plan that included a quantity needed of each color. I set about making the piles of granny squares I would need. Based on my pace, I figured I would finish making motifs a few days before the kid’s birthday. I determined that I could sew it all together pretty quickly and did not really factor in the time needed for that. Silly me!
I did finish the motifs in time and sewed together a single row of them before I ran out of steam. I realized there was no way I was going to finish in time and I stuffed all of the pieces into a tote bag along with the chart I had drawn in my notebook. I then proceeded to forget about the project for something like eleven months. I finally picked it up again when watching a movie at my grandmother’s place because the bag happened to be in my car. I then decided to push through because I was so close!
It took another month of sewing motifs together and burying ends, mostly while hanging out with my grandmother on our weekly visit, whether watching a movie or just talking, but I finally got everything stitched together and the ends buried enough to not be dangling, at least. It was not until after I had finished that I realized there was an error in the positioning of the sky-colored blocks vs. the grass-colored ones between Luigi’s legs. In order to fix that, I would have had to un-pick the buried ends (if that was even possible) then pick out the seams and re-sew everything with now dangerously short yarn ends. This being the case, I decided to leave it as-is. Maybe Luigi is standing on a couple of hills! Of course the outside looked very uneven and wavy, so I single crocheted all the way around it. I decided on yellow because it is the least-used color in the blanket but it still didn’t look quite right, so I added another round, this time double crochet, I think it turned out okay. I did not get a good flat picture of it because I took the photo on our bed where there are body pillows under the comforter that I was too lazy to remove. The final step, as always, was me sewing on a little made-by label. I used to have nicer ones (woven) but I cannot find them, so printed satin it is!
Immediately after finishing the Luigi project, I threw myself into a tiny one that could easily satisfy me. Around the time I was working on the border, a friend posted a picture in our Discord chat of a cute bag that she suddenly felt a need to own. Apparently she has tried to learn to crochet in the past without luck and so is not eager to give it another shot. I realized that between the dark brown and the skin color I had in Red Heart yarn, I was 2/3 of the way to having all of the necessary materials to make the bag happen. I spent like $4 to get a skein of medium brown yarn and set to work. I suppose I could have searched Ravelry for the pattern that appeared to be for sale but instead I freehanded something similar based solely on the photo. I think it turned out pretty well, honestly. It might have looked better if I had used single crochet instead of double crochet but my way was faster and I think it looks okay anyway. I was eager to finish and admit that I crocheted the strap while at a work meeting to expedite the whole process. The arms and legs seemed especially silly but I made them anyway and they look really cute. I chose not to stuff them.
The last thing I finished this month is also the oldest project of the three. Many years ago, my parents went on vacation to New Zealand and Australia. They brought me back two sweaters’ worth of yarn. Twelve skeins of turquoise Empire 8-ply from Morris & Sons and some possum-blend yarn in black and purple that I apparently have not added to my Ravelry stash. Anyway, the Empire yarn is beautiful and soft but very splitty. Sometimes I would find one ply broken in the skein and it would unravel some in each direction from the break. Also, I found many knots where the yarn was put back together, three or more in a single skein, which seemed excessive to me and was annoying. Still, I like the yarn overall and was excited to make myself a sweater out of it.
I could not decide on a pattern to use so I opted to make my own using a basic raglan pattern (more or less) and some cables from my Vogue Stitchionary. After deciding on a v-neck, I set to work. I do have some regrets about how I made the sweater; the cable on the sleeves is too simple, the cable on the front looks weird starting small and getting bigger, and I did not shape the sleeves well. Additionally, I made mistakes; there is a cable mis-crossed on the back of the sweater, it goes over instead of under across the whole width. Also, at a few points, I mis-counted my rows and some of the cables are shorter than they should be and/or look weird but overall, I am pleased. I started it in March of 2019 and put it down then picked it back up more than once. Some of the errors are due to the fact that I did not keep good notes about my process.
As I came close to the end of the sleeves, I played a bit of yarn chicken with one cuff and thought I had won but when I tried on the sweater after that, the cuffs were definitely an inch too short so after dithering a bit, I tore back the cast off and extended the ribbing a bit. Unfortunately, that meant I had to add another ball of yarn to one cuff and as I did not have another ball of yarn, I ended up working from the other end of my last ball (on the other cuff, I was knitting them two-at-a-time on one long circular needle) which did cause a few tangles. Fortunately, that was short-lived and I finally finished! I was worried that the sweater would be too baggy since when I started it, I weighed something between 200 & 210 lbs and now I am down to 182. My bra size has decreased a big and my waist measurement has as well. Fortunately, either I originally planned this with too much negative ease or the ribbed sides are really great for shaping, because it seems to fit me pretty well now!
There are kind of a lot of ends to weave into this project too, although not 305 like for the Luigi blanket! It took me a few days to do that because of a combination of disinterest and a power outage (it is hard to do stuff like that by candlelight). Anyway, eventually I finished and I am pretty pleased. I have only half a skein of yarn left, although in two different chunks. That was cutting it pretty close and I am glad that I made it!
It took me a few years to get this sweater done but now I can proudly wear it to work 🙂 I should probably block it but eh, that’s for another [less excited] time.
KalyKnits 