Finished Blanket!

Lou just sent me photos of the assembled blanket, which is on its way North. Kit and I should hopefully be able to wrangle getting together with Melissa next week.

Update

Lou asked me to post an update. He is actively working on sewing the squares together but was a bit delayed due to a couple of commission pieces that had to be finished. The blanket should be done soon, though, and on its way.

Progress on Square - It's blocking time

Well I had great ideas for Melissa's block. I decided to use some of the stash I acquired from Freecycle of Lio*n Brand Homespun because I know she has used it and likes it. I contemplated various stitch patterns and finally decided to make a yarn painting. A very crude yarn painting as it turns out. This is my first attempt mixing colours and certainly my first time using yarn to make an illustration! I ripped and restarted many section, more than once sometimes. I tried just going free hand and realized that is a HUGE mistake for a beginner. So I sketched out what I wanted to try to do in yarn with some crayons:

I can assure you that the block looks nothing like this! I realized after numerous restarts and frogging that in order to do something like this again in the future (shoot me now!) I really ought to have done SSK, and K2Tog sort of stitch to give a more graceful look.
This is how it looks just pinned, shot with no flash.

This is how it looks shot with a flash.
Gotta love the flash! Makes it look so much nicer. I doubt very much it will look this flat and pulled together, even after blocking but there it is. The design was inspired by New Hampshire landscape.

Will get it posted quite soon!

Samantha (Dharma) in the Bay Area CA

I'm not sure that we should post Lou's address here, but I have it if anyone wants to email me at mhward at bigpond dot net dot au

Mailing address?

Mine is done and I'd like to mail it. Could someone email me the address, please? (I'm in the USA) Thanks!

Finished and mailed

I finally finished my square, mailed it, and off to the races.Not the beat photo, but the square really is square. I liked making this square, and tried to put some joy into each stitch. It was begun in New York, travelled to a Bat Mitzvah in Chicago, where I knit on it in two airports, at the hotel, and at a family party( where we got to discussing Yarn Harlot and the community of knitters.) I finished it back home in New York. Knitting at a party was a great way to get to know distant relatives in a more connected way, so I hope the energy of this blanket brings peace, warmth and the comfort of old and new friends to Melissa.

Finished

I unpinned my square this evening, and it looks nice. I did have to add a single crochet border. Will get it sent off tomorrow before work.

Blocking in Progress

I finished my square this evening & set about blocking it. I was having a devil of a time getting it into shape until I remembered that I actually have a set of blocking wires that I had never used. So I found those and got it all set up on the floor of the bedroom - the only room the beasties can't get into. Hopefully it'll be dry and ready to go by tomorrow, but the recent dampness may delay things a touch. As soon as it's ready, it'll be off in the mail.

Europe sending

This is my square for Melissa - sent to Lou today with my love (and Lena's, Anne's and Brenda's squares. I've got a tracker number, people.) I hope they all go together ok, Lou, thanks for doing this.

Almost There

M-H asked, "How are the rest of you getting along?"

I have to confess that I got absolutely nothing done over the past week and have just tonight sat back down with my square. Even though I was off work most of last week, I seemed to be too busy even to pick any knitting up. I also took the square to work with me last night, foolishly optimistic that I would get a chance to sit down with it. Tonight, however, I've finally had a chance to get back to it and currently have only 18 rows left to go. I shall shorten that gap a bit more before I sleep, and I've got one more day off from work, which will give me ample time to finish it off and wash & block - finally.