Does It Count?

Way back when, I fell in love with the Barn Raising Quilt from Knitalong. Finally, I thought, an excuse to buy all that cool yarn that sock knitters so selfishly hogged for themselves. I let myself run wild. Then came the realization that I do not have Larissa Brown's eye for color. Looking at the yarn I had collected, I could only envision something that would look like a 2 year old gone wild with the 64 color crayon box. Or the color equivalent of what the other 199 type-writing monkeys would turn out while the 200th wrote Hamlet.

Still, I started in. Knitted a square and loved it. Knitted another and loved it, too. Added a few more skeins of sock yarn. Knitted another square or so. Then started lining them up. That's when I realized they would only fight. Adding squares seemed to simply increase the violence of what was turning into a free-for-all. When the squares began mud-wrestling, I stopped knitting.

Thank heaven last month Larissa posted about making Barn-raising quilts for the Sock Summit to benefit Doctors Without Borders. It made me dig out my squares and rethink my own quilt. It dawned on me that I could let some other creative mind do the color work for me. All I had to do was choose my favorite skein and match the rest of the squares to it.

My quilt will now be based on Claudia Handpaints' Walk in the Woods. I've sorted out the squares and skeins. I have 5 colors that co-ordinate with it: Shibui Knits Sock in Dragonfly (the teal) and Pagoda (the copper), Claudia Handpaints in Moss, Indigo and Taupe.

I'm giving up Shibui Knits Midnight (the blue, too bright), Claudia Handpaints Odd Duck (the pale blue-green, too much blue-green with the Dragonfly) and Cherry Tree Hill Spring Frost (the multi-colored, too washed-out looking next to Walk in the Woods). Once I finish up with Odd Duck and block it, those squares will join the Knitalong in Portland.

They're due by June 9. Having paid express shipping to the West Coast (ouch) once this year for afghans for Afghans (I had to get that in because Cathy had asked and I never answered), I want to make sure I get these off in a more timely manner.

Who knew limits (okay, and a little do-gooding) could be so liberating. Not to mention what separating the combatants has done for my knitting