a gift

On Tuesday, February 19th, I took a class at Trumpet Hill. We were making this: any guesses?



Our teacher, Celeste, who had made 2 of them.

It's the Hemlock Ring Blanket, made, and made famous, by Jared Flood.

The class will meet again this Tuesday, but I had a deadline: March 1st was my friend Cathy's 50th birthday party, and I definitely wanted to give her this. I had the perfect yarn for it, in the right color (she loves green), the right weight, and the right quantity. The yarn was, in fact, so perfect, it's color name even was "Hemlock". It was meant to be.

The pattern is fairly addictive. You get through the center flower motif in a couple of days, and then it's off to the races with lots and lots of feather and fan including lots and lots of increases. If you make the smaller version, you end up with 472 sts around, which you have to knit 4 rounds.

The bind off is in a league of its own. It took me two movies on Friday night to finish it, about 4 hours. But it was really worth it!

Here it is, before blocking, an amorphous mass of stitches. I was seriously worried that this thing would block out correctly.

I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures. Before I had to go to work on Saturday, blocked it with my husband's help, a yardstick, and dozens of pins, put an oscillating fan on it to help it dry; then I went to work, came home, took a few quick pictures (and a shower) and ran to the party.

It's about 52 inches across.

Here's the center motif. The purple background is an old sheet we spread out on the living room rug.

This Tuesday, we have class again, and I am hoping I can steal it away from Cathy for two hours to show it off. Heck, maybe she'll even join me?

I am seriously tempted to make another Hemlock, I have another 4 skeins sitting in the stash that would be perfect for it. This time, a cream color...