Friday, August 20, 2010

C is for Cricket

August 125
It would be fair to say that the boy and I have taken a break from house tidying/organising/purging and have been in hibernation for the last few days.  The baby's room is very nearly finished being organised and it would only take a couple of hours to polish it off but I suspect that my subconscious doesn't really want to finish it just yet; if the baby's room is ready then I must be ready to have the little bear, and much as I'm longing to meet him or her (and be able to roll over in a manoeuvre that takes less than 10 minutes and doesn't involve the use of a crane), I'd like a few more days - well we are only on day 3 of the test match.

When H worked from home and I headed out the door each morning we'd spend our holiday weeks balancing his desire to go out on expeditions and my deep longing to shut the door, unplug the phone, and just enjoy our pretty little house.  I can remember enough of the wanting to hide away from the world, and my willingness to travel is directly proportional to the proposed destination's distance from Warwick Hospital that our 'cricket at home' holiday is turning out to be just perfect.

And Alistair Cooke just got a century. At long last.

This is not of course to say that we've been totally idle.  H has made a series of delicious sausage, bacon and egg butties at appropriate moments, and I've been knitting.  Way back when, in the first of what seems to have been a string of 'Year of the Baby Boom's I made three Debbie Bliss Alphabet Blankets, all in quick succession and when I finished the third one I promised myself that the next one I knit was staying right here.

I started after the Tour de Fleece and finished the centre alphabet blocks on Thursday morning at Knit and Natter leaving me with just the borders to go.
August 126
T is for Triangle
August 127
E is for Edging.

I had memories of this edging taking forever, but since I knit the last blanket I've learned how to knit backwards courtesy of the Lizard Ridge blanket which eliminates the need to turn each tiny triangle numerous times and has speeded the whole thing up no end.
August 128

















It just looks so pretty when it's finished! So as of the afternoon session on Day 3, with England a respectable 190-3, sorry, 194-3 (cheers KP), I have a top and bottom border - I just need to go and find my notes on what I changed on the side border.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:03 pm

    Hi Carrie

    I've just started the Debbie Bliss Alphabet Blanket and came across your blog for the first time. I am so impressed. I can't believe that you have knitted so many Alphabet Blankets!

    I'm a bit confused by the squares on the chart that have triangles ie the "k3tog one" and the "slip 1, k2tog, psso" doesn't make sense as you'd end up with the wrong number of stitches. I tried looking at the errata on the Debbie Biss website but they don't cover all the rows with triangles.

    Can you help?

    Thanks

    Teresa

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Teresa

    If you look at the rows with those little triangles and count the yarn overs you'll find you've got an extra yarn over to make the numbers up. Eg if in a row on one square you have 4 k2tog and 1 k3tog you will have 6 yarnovers to balance it out. It sounds more complicated than it is in real life I promise - either go for it and trust that it will work out or knit a swatch of one of the squares with the double decreases to see it in action! Good Luck :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous11:09 pm

    Hi Carrie

    I think I was just tired last night as you are quite right, it works out fine. I'm using your picture as inspiration as this blanket is going to be hard work - my eyes are swimming from the chart already!

    Thanks so much

    Teresa

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi ,
    I have just about finished my first alphabet blanket. I'm puzzled about the border, I can't figure how to make the numbers work out right. It says 187 stitches, but that is not divisable by 8 ??? Help, do I cast on extra stitches to begin?
    Thanks,
    Laura

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Laura. Although you start the border with 187 stitches, by the time you get to the triangles bit you've got 199 stitches because of increasing in the corners on each alternate row. Although 199 doesn't divide neatly by 8 either, I promise it does work out, just go with the pattern and all will be well.

    ReplyDelete

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