I thought it was time to update you all on how my Moody Blanket is progressing.
The first thing I should point out is that it’s definitely taking longer to complete the two rows than it was when I first began. I think it’s largely to do with the increasing size of the blanket, which means there’s more fabric to move along the needles. I’m finding I need to allow at least half an hour to complete the two rows now and I expect the time to increase as the blanket does.
Unfortunately I had to use the flash on my camera to take these photos and it’s made the colours much starker than in reality. The colour changes are (I think) far less noticeable and seem to flow into each other rather nicely. By using the cream Sirdar Bonus Tweed Aran continuously and only changing the one strand there is a continuity of colour that adds to the blanket’s charm.
One of the best things about knitting the blanket is that it’s warm, even at the size it is now – all 13.5inches of it. However I guess that might not be so appealing in June, or at least we hope so.
I am really enjoying being able to look over the diary of the last few weeks and am pleased to report that so far I have had :-
2 Tough days
18 OK days
13 Good days
6 Really good days
Not bad considering it’s been dark dismal January.
I thought it might be a good time to show you how my Moody Blanket is coming along, 11 days after starting my knitting on Saturday 5th January, which was a good day.
I’m really happy with how the colours are blending together using garter stitch. You can probably see that there is a fourth shade, because guess what? Apparently I do have bad days, of sorts anyway. The navy is shade 906 in Sirdar Supersoft Aran – a 100g ball not 400g, as I’m still convinced I have very few ‘bad days’. I’m not even sure it was a bad day; I was extremely tired and my hands were really, really sore, which means completing every task was troublesome, but the rest of the day was OK. Based on my irksome day I thought it appropriate to include an additional shade.
Of the 11 days so far – 3 have been good
1 has been really good (I got to spend time with lots of my friends at knitting)
1 has been tough
6 have been OK
I love the way the i-cord edge is finishing the blanket off nicely.
I-Cord edge
The blanket also looks great on the reverse
The Back
I see no reason for today’s rows not to be ‘very good’ as it’s my daughters 23rd birthday. The 16th of January has been one of the best since 1990. (how old am I???????)
2 strands of aran weight yarn are used held together.
You will need approximately 2400 metres of your base yarn and then the same amount again in your chosen combination of yarns. I am using Sirdar Bonus Aran and Sirdar Bonus Aran Tweed and will need 3 x 400g balls of my base shade 929 and probably 2 x 400g of shades 822 & 817 and 1 x 400g of 994. (I will have loads left for charity knitting)
You will also need around another 20 to 50 metres (doubled) to work your applied i-cord if doing so at both your cast on and cast off ends.
I also used scrap super chunky yarn for my provisional cast on and a 12mm crochet hook.
8mm Needles
Darning Needle
Tension
12sts x 18rows on 8mm needles with 2 strands of aran weight yarn held together in garter stitch
Abbreviations
k – knit
st(s) – stitch(es)
co – cast on
wyif – with yarn in front
sl – slip next st
sl3 – slip next 3 sts (for applied I-cord)
psso – pass slipped stitch over
K3tog – knit next 3 sts together
Applied I-cord cast off –
*k2, sl 1 k-wise, k1 (this will be 1 of your live sts at the cast off end or from the provisional cast on), psso, sl all 3 sts back onto left needle and rep from* until all sts have been worked. Three I-cord sts remain on needle, K3tog, break yarn and draw through your final st.
Pattern
For the i-cord edge you need to use a provisional cast on method and you want 222 sts for the blanket.
I prefer to use the crochet chain provisional cast on, so I chained 228 sts with a 12mm hook and super chunky yarn.
1st row – knit all stitches
For every subsequent row you knit until the last 3 sts, wyif sl3
I’m hoping to knit at least 324 rows or 162 garter stitch ridges. I shall be knitting 2 rows per day.
The I-cord edge is optional. If you are making the blanket without it – using thumb method and holding the 2 strands of yarn together cast on 216 sts and knit every row without slipping the last 3 sts.
If you follow the instructions in Moody Blanket part 1 & 2 you will hopefully end up with a beautiful and personal blanket.
I shall be using an I-cord cast off on my cast on and cast off edges. Work on your cast off edge first by CO 3 sts using cable cast on method, work I-cord cast off as per instructions above.
Slip cast on sts onto needle and work as for cast off end above.
Sew in your ends, hiding them in the I-cord if you’ve chosen to make it.
This is what my blanket looks like after 2 days
Saturday was a good day whilst Monday was just ok. The red is my provisional cast on yarn. I shall try to update on the blankets progress weekly.
The darker shade (top right) represents my OK days.
The lighter shade (top left) represents my good days.
The brighter blue (bottom) represents my very good days.
I will also have to include a colour or 2 for a totally ‘unexpected day’ which will probably be navy for a bloody horrendous day (hope I don’t have any of those) and maybe a baby blue or something else for a truly spectacular day, but it would have to be out of this world, super fantastic to make it into my blanket.
I’m assuming the bulk of my blanket will be made up of the darker and lighter shades as most of my days will probably be OK or good.
Tension next. The little sample squares above were knitted on 10mm’s and the tension seemed a little on the loose side, especially for a blanket. So I opted to use 8mm’s instead.
Tension on 8mm
Based on this I was able to calculate that I would need to cast on 216 sts to achieve a blanket that’s approximately 6 foot wide. It will also take 324 rows or 162 garter stitch ridges to achieve the 6 foot in length that I’d like to achieve (although I might end up making it a little longer).
Ooops – The glaringly obvious problem is it’s not going to take me a year to knit is it? I would prefer to knit 1 garter stitch ridge or 2 rows per day to keep the blanket the same on both sides. Nevermind, if it works I shall knit one for each of my 3 children as per their mood, so now I have the next 2 years planned. Another way of doing the blanket could be to do your mood based on so many days per months, days of the week.
As an added design element also thought an applied I-Cord edge would tidy up the blanket, whilst providing the ideal place to hide the multiple ends whilst sewing them in. I’ve used it many times before on blankets and am currently trying to finish my Ravi (designed by Carol Feller) which uses it too.
Applied i-cord
To make finishing with the i-cord around all four sides, I decided to use a provisional cast on. I find it easiest to use a crochet chain and use each chain to knit through.
My very long crochet chain
It’s easier if you use a hook a couple of sizes larger that the needles your going to eventually use and you need to make sure you add a few extra chains just to make it easier to put your stitches up.
I used a 12mm hook (because I didn’t have a 10mm) and some Wendy Serenity Super Chunky that I had left in my stash. The chain is 228 stitches long which is plenty for the 222 stitches I need.
There are a few more things that I needed to work out before writing the pattern up.
How much yarn will the blanket take? – I can get 30 stitches on my 8mm’s out of a metre of yarn, which means one complete row will take 7.4metres (there about) x 2 because the yarn is worked doubled. That means the blanket will take at lease 2398 metres of yarn, not allowing for the extra yarn for the applied i-cord at the cast on and cast off edges.
There are 840 metres in each ball of Sirdar Bonus Aran/Aran Tweed so I will need at least 3 x 400g balls in the base shade 929 and there’s no real way to be sure how much I’ll need in each of the ‘mood’ shades. Based on the size of the balls and my predominate moods I envisage it will be 2 of the lighter and darker shades (817 & 822) and 1 of the brighter one (994)
I also wanted to time how long it will take to complete a row, so I know I’ll have enough time to do a little each day. It took me approximately 9 minutes to knit all 222 stitches, but there is no weight or bulk to the knitting yet so I assume it will end up taking much longer as the knitting grows.
Before I start this post, I should warn you it’ll be quite lengthy, so I’ve decided to split it into three. The first two discuss the concept of the mood blanket and the third gives the pattern.
Some of you may have seen the link I posted on the shop’s Facebook page with regards to the ‘My year in temperature’ concept scarf by Kristen Cooper, but for those of you that haven’t, here’s the link.
Kristen’s idea is to select shades of yarn to represent the temperature that day. In her case she is using 15 shades with each one equating to a 5 degree jump in temperature. She then intends to work a row of her scarf a day with the colour that she has previously chosen for the temperature of that day. The end result will be a scarf that represents the year’s temperatures a stripe/day at a time.
OK, as ideas go it’s great and I love the concept, so why haven’t I reached for my ever bulging stash crates and needles and cast on?
Two reasons really:
The first, and most obvious to my fellow citizens of this very Emerald Isle, is the weather. To be honest the temperature, whilst prone to fluctuation, doesn’t have the obvious highs and lows of British Columbia in Canada, where Kristen is from, more’s the pity. Which led me to think about other things that happen on a daily basis that could be used to create the effect. The most obvious to me being our mood, which can be changeable from a day-to-day basis = Design Element Sorted, lovely.
The second reason is because it’s a scarf, not that I have anything against scarves. In fact I can usually be found wearing one in all but the very hottest of temperatures, which to be fair I don’t get to see much (second dig at the Irish weather, sorry). I suppose I’m not really that big into multi-coloured clothing and yes I do know I could keep the palette of colours very similar, but I still feel it’s not for me.
So after much pondering, well not really that much as I’ve always wanted to knit one, I decided a blanket would be a more my kind of thing. Having seen one years ago, worked in two strands of yarn with one always the same shade, I set to the planning.
I knew I wanted the blanket to be a big one; much more than a throw for the sofa. If I’m going to make one it’s got to be big enough to use as extra insulation on the bed in the winter months, so it’s going to take a lot of yarn. I also want it to be chunky and squishy, but the yarn, if it’s going to be held double, doesn’t need to be too thick. Aran weight should do.
The initial decision is always what yarn to use. It has to be gorgeous and not too expensive (yes I do have a wool shop, but you still have to pay for the stock you use, even if it is at cost+vat). Having moved away from the pure merino staring lovingly at me from the shop shelves, I was drawn to the Bonus Aran from Sirdar, particularly the lovely new shade of blue that I’ve been coveting since it came in.
Sirdar Bonus Aran in Royal
There is a good selection of shades available in the range, especially when combined with the Bonus Aran Tweed colours too. Yes, it’s not pure wool, or even 50%, in fact it’s only 20% wool with 80% acrylic. It is however, machine washable, which is definitely a bonus in a blanket, and it also comes in massive 400g balls each containing approximately 840 metres. I want my blanket to be utilitarian rather than something I’m petrified to throw over the bed and I’d rather the moths weren’t interested either.
OK, so which colour for which moods and how many moods do I really have?
The honest answer is not many. I’m lucky to be a glass is half full kind of person (sickening at times according to my husband) and truthfully very rarely have bad days. That’s not to say there haven’t been the odd truly horrific days in my life like we all sadly experience; fortunately though they’re very few and far between. So my base mood is for the most part OK: I then have good days and some that could be classed as really good.
That’s really it – three moods?
So……….. on Saturday I played with colour combinations. As the royal was the shade I was drawn to I experimented with it first. It’s too bright to use as my base shade (the constant one) but I figured that if I could find the correct combination to go with it the other two shades would be easier to work out.
Royal with 4 other shades
These look much better in the photo than they do in reality, the royal just wasn’t sitting with anything else properly. So back to the drawing board. Of the four samples, the one I liked the most was the one knitted with the cream tweed yarn – shade 929. Using this as my base shade I looked at the other options available to me in the range, focusing on the blues predominantly, as blue is my favourite colour
Confessions of a Fibre Strumpet 