A Big Finish

This is another of my WIPs that I finally finished. Last year a group of us that meet regularly via Zoom decided to do a yarn swap. Actually, one person suggested it and organized it and a number of us jumped at the idea. The plan was to send 10 grams of yarn which represented you to each participant and we ended up with the equivalent of two skeins of fingering weight yarn each. I purchased two skeins of yarn at the Vista Fiber Festival so that I could send local yarn around the world.

The only problem that was encountered was that the US was not accepting any mail for Australia so our Australian participant had to wait until January for all her packages.

I opened a package a day from mid-December but did not start a project until I had opened them all as I wanted to see all the mini skeins to decide on the order I would work them – in the end that did not matter and you will see why in the completed project.

We all made different things. I knew that what I made had to use all the yarns and had to be something I would wear/use. A blanket seemed the best thing. I chose a crochet pattern and knew that I would have to add my own yarn to it. Well that was a disaster. Not in the execution as it came out nicely but in its size. Although I would be adding my own yarn to make a border, I would have had to add so much it would have taken away from the delight of the yarns sent. But I was still certain that a blanket was the best idea.

I chose a knitting pattern from a book I own and decided to hold the yarn quadrupled. You read that correctly, four strands of yarn. When I had frogged the original project I had wound the yarn into one big ball thinking I would use it that way but with this decision I had to wind each colour then wind again to get a double strand so that I could work from the inner and outer of the ball to get four strands. I used two greys I had in my stash for the outer circle and had to buy another skein of grey to be able to complete them all. The squares are joined with a yarn that I bought at the Fiber Fiesta at the same time as my swap yarn and the outer border is worked using the yarn I purchased at this year’s Fiber Fiesta with the thought that it would be used in this blanket. I am especially pleased with the cast off. For some squares I had more yarn than was needed so all these ends were used in a knotted bind off. I was even able to add in the Simpson’s yarn that had been sent as a bonus by one of the participants.

I am very happy with the finished item. It is soft and big enough as a lap blanket and each square is individual so you can really see each individual yarn. The blanket has been blocked a few times but due to the shape of each square and different yarns used, it is not going to lie absolutely flat and I am OK with that as I have a one-of-a-kind piece that brings so much joy.