I finished my second Opt art baby blanket, all 99,012 stitches of it. I added my daily tally of knitting to my spreadsheet of the previous blanket, to compare how I got on. The purple line is the previous blanket, and the orange line this blanket. This is a great project to do in winter (rather than summer time as previously), as it makes a great lap warmer! I did have a slight issue, when on day 51 I ran out of yarn. I really couldn't understand this, as I used exactly the same yarn as last time. So a small knitting panic ensued; involving rushing after work to one knitting shop only to leave empty handed, diverting on the way to a gig to another yarn shop, and then only when I was so happy to have a ball of Sirdar Snuggly in my hands, did I realise that the concert tickets were left at home!* It did eventually dawn on me as to why I needed more wool, as I realised that I had used 5mm needles instead of 4mm. Yes, I am one of those people who never does a gauge swatch. The whole blanket took 53 days to knit (average rate 1869 stitches per day), however I only actually knitted on 37 days (so the true average is 2676 stitches per day). It took 2 days longer than my previous Op Art blanket, but this can be explained on the knitting trauma of having to buy an extra ball of wool. I knitted on more days than previously (37 vs 32), though the average number of stitches achieved daily, was lower (3094 vs 2676), this is explained by me having slightly less TV watching time (which is when most of my knitting occurs) as I have two jobs at the moment. *Panic over, after a quick drive back along the M8 to pick up our Cornershop tickets, we manged to miss only a little of the support act - phew!
Craftster recently had a Good Omens themed swap. This is a book by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, about the birth of the son of Satan and the end of the world. Despite the rather gloomy topic, the book is very funny. For my craftster swap partner I made a journal of Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (that title will make sense if you have read Good Omens - I promise). Using coptic binding techniques that I learnt back here. And from my swap partner, I received a crochet demon Crowley, complete with sunglasses! Crowley is fallen angel (who sauntered vaguely downwards), he lives on earth, listens to Queen, and claims responsibility for the M25. You can see all of the Good Omens crafted goodies here.
I was woken up this morning by the sound of a package falling onto the doormat. That noise is enough for me to scurry quickly out of bed, far quicker than I ever would if it was a workday! Delivered this morning was my prize from the asking for trouble blog giveaway. Kawaii notebooks, badges, gingerbread men & an uber cute bread slice charm. Thank you! Back to my crafting, my opt art blanket is finished and in the post, will share photos soon. In the meantime I have cast on some Wise Hilda socks for me, using some beautiful variegated drops yarn that I won from a playful day podcast giveaway. The pattern is suitably simple, so that I can knit away whilst daydreaming or watching tv. And, I'd forgotten just how much I like using a variegated yarn, I find myself calling out the colours as I knit along "oooh, purple", "oooh, green!" :)
The purple line is the previous blanket, and the orange line this blanket. This is a great project to do in winter (rather than summer time as previously), as it makes a great lap warmer! I did have a slight issue, when on day 51 I ran out of yarn. I really couldn't understand this, as I used exactly the same yarn as last time. So a small knitting panic ensued; involving rushing after work to one knitting shop only to leave empty handed, diverting on the way to a gig to another yarn shop, and then only when I was so happy to have a ball of Sirdar Snuggly in my hands, did I realise that the concert tickets were left at home!*
It did eventually dawn on me as to why I needed more wool, as I realised that I had used 5mm needles instead of 4mm. Yes, I am one of those people who never does a gauge swatch. The whole blanket took 53 days to knit (average rate 1869 stitches per day), however I only actually knitted on 37 days (so the true average is 2676 stitches per day). It took 2 days longer than my previous Op Art blanket, but this can be explained on the knitting trauma of having to buy an extra ball of wool. I knitted on more days than previously (37 vs 32), though the average number of stitches achieved daily, was lower (3094 vs 2676), this is explained by me having slightly less TV watching time (which is when most of my knitting occurs) as I have two jobs at the moment.
*Panic over, after a quick drive back along the M8 to pick up our Cornershop tickets, we manged to miss only a little of the support act - phew!
