08 February 2010

For the next few decades...


...I will be knitting this!
I got a Debbie Abrahams book for Christmas and got my loving husband to agree to pay a CRAZY amount of money for all the yarn I need to make this lovely (and HUGE) blanket.
For the record, it calls for Rowan all-seasons cotton. Rowan is one of the few things that are much cheaper here in England than in the US. All of this yarn would have cost me almost $700 had I gotten in from the US. As it is, it still cost me nearly half that. I used my allotted yarn allowance for the next several years and I am still shocked that my husband agreed! I went to a local store with the nicest owner in the world and convinced her to give me 15% off the total price if I ordered it from her all at once. :-D

This is what I have done so far. Most of the squares require at least some swiss darning which is time consuming, but looks really nice. I am honestly planning on this thing taking me about 2 years, but hopeful I can get it done in a year. Maybe 10 months. That will only be accomplished if I work on nothing else in the mean time, which is unlikely. I know after a bit I will tire of it and need to do something else, but for now I am really enjoying it. Have made a lot of silly errors so far which have cost me a fair amount of time, but I am learning and getting faster.
Oh- and the finished size? About the size of a double-bed. 117 squares. Yikes!

3 comments:

Johanna said...

Wow! That is so beautiful! I cannot believe your husband let you get all that yarn, either. My husband would not have been so accomodating! Of course, I don't have the track record that you do with finishing knit projects.

I cannot wait to see the finished blanket!

Joanna said...

HOLY CROW!!!! Wow!!! I mean....HOLY COW!!! I can't wait to see it finished either! I think Del would have bought it if he thought I'd finish it and it'd look nice and be useful. However...considering my track record he would have laughed in my face and then poked me in the tummy and patted me on the head and said "you're cute." What this tells me is that Aaron must be completely confident in your knitting and that is quite a compliment. I'm impressed.

Unknown said...

What a big project! I think you've officially surpassed me as the resident knitter on MOI :)

Rowan yarn is my favorite! They have he best colors. You are so lucky to be able to get it at such a discount. Isn't it ridiculous how much it costs for any project if you get the yarn in the US? I've always gotten my Rowan yarn on sale, but then I end up with colors that no one else really wants. Bummer.

I noticed that the pattern calls for Magpie, which was discontinued a long time ago. But, I happened upon some of this years ago and if you can find it, it's really super nice to knit with.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing your progress!