It's not a Mistake, it's the bubbling of creativity

The Never Ending Garter Stitch Blanket holds stories.






















Believe it or not, (and I might as well get this out of the way) it grew out of this.













Well, maybe it really started here, with garter stitching in plain yarn. I just wanted to get that picture out of the way as soon as possible. Never say I don't tell all.













This is my first non-trapezoidal piece of knitting. I completed it under the inspiration of the Yarn Harlot's Knitting Olympics Challenge. I may not have joined, (have you seen what people did? So out of my league) but this is my gold medal. It will live on that needle forever. Of course, it helps that I don't much like that brand needle. Note how small it is. It didn't take long to realize what people meant when they said garter stitch was mind-numbing.

Three things came together right about the time I noticed how sick I could get of garter stitch. I stumbled upon Colorsong, Fleece Artist, and the Island Embrace. My sister's birthday was coming up. And it occurred to me, she knits.

Knitche was listed on the Fleece Artist website as a local yarn store. They didn't have the Splendid Sofa Kit, but then, I wasn't at all sure about something that required size 17 needles. The staff entered in to inventing the first Variation on Island Embrace with an enthusiasm that left me goggle-eyed, gasping, with two bags of yarn and a set of Denise Interchangeable Needles and a realization that I could make garter stitch interesting if I found the right yarn. You have no idea how hard it was to give all that good stuff to my sister.

The interesting yarn purchase came out of that first excess of enthusiasm. I don't know what I was thinking. It's not even fun to knit with. It's "interesting" as in the Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times."

In my knitting innocence - I had never heard of Noro or Cashmerino, didn't know of the existence of WEBS or Fuzzy Mabel or Flying Fingers - I started browsing eBay. That's where I found The Yarn. It's Noro Yoroi. Admittedly, I had to but the whole bag of ten skeins to get the best price, but for someone whose yarn history was mostly crochet, ten skeins seemed perfectly reasonable.



















When the yarn arrived, Marco claimed it for his blanket. When John saw it, so did he. I was pretty sure I couldn't get two afghans out of those ten skeins, even if it was bulky, and realized I had the beginnings of my own Variation on Island Embrace.

In my hunt for the perfect yarn, I found Cascade Heathers and two more yarn stores. The first one told me an afghan made out of wool was too expensive. The second one had Manos del Uruguay.















The blues are for Marco. The green and gold are John's. Garter stitch is all about the yarn.