Red

I know I don't usually post on Saturdays.  Okay, I pretty much never post on Saturdays. I'm kind of irked that I've blown off the blog this month, though, especially since I need it to help me keep track of what I'm doing (i.e. how I've faked something).  And fine, first there was the frenzied shower knitting, then there was the week with meetings and assignments every day, then there were the days spent pulling life back together after the frenzied shower and meeting weeks.  Just because I know why it happened doesn't mean I like it.

I was made aware of this in particular last evening as I attempted to knit my way through Frozen - which, by the way, is the lamest thing Disney has come out with since Toy Story 3. ( It was the Pirate's movie night; he gets to pick the feature).  I picked up Knitting Rage and confounded myself when I reached the marker on the eyelet row I was working with a k2tog instead of a k1. KR being an improvisational piece, I just went with it.  The same pattern worked out for each of the 4 sections, so I decided to give up puzzling about it and call it a design feature.

Then I got to puzzle some more when I couldn't remember what I did next.  I was pretty sure it was the purl row for the garter ridge, except it was also an increase row and I didn't remember doing a pfb increase on the previous eyelet section.  Having just completely lapsed on the eyelet row, though, I bulled on forward only to find, when I compared the two eyelet sections, that I had indeed not done anything so complicated as purling and increasing on the same row. 

The rule for this blanket, then, is clearly Keep It Simple, Stupid (may need to rename the project, yes?).  Given how I 've been assuming complications, I evidently need to store the recipe somewhere.  I am, after all, going to be doing additional eyelet sections on this thing, not to mention future blankets.

All of which means you get an extra Saturday post.

Rectangle Blanket Recipe:

Math to figure out the difference desired between the length and width of the blanket. (This involves choosing yarn and needles.  A good person would swatch.  I am not a good person. Therefore I guess.)

Tunisian cast-on for the number of stitches set by the Math.

Knit first round.

Place markers for corners.  For reasons I'm not sure of, I started the project with kfb, place marker, kfb, so the first stitch of the row is actually the stitch before the first marker. I find myself cognitively dissonated by this every time I knit an increase row and may have to re-orient my mind so next time the increase before the first marker is the final one instead of the first one.

KFB on either side of each marker. Next time remember to try twisted yo or m1l and m1r increases.

Knit the first skein, increasing on alternate rows. 

Join next skein using Russian Join or Magic Knot.

Work eyelet sections  -
Knit an increase row. Purl the next row. Knit an increase row. K1 *yo, k2tog* to marker (or possibly K1 * yo, k2tog* to last stitch before marker, yo, k1), repeat for all four sections. Knit an increase row.  Purl next row. Knit 3 more rows - one increase, one even, one increase.  Repeat eyelet pattern. 

Return to stockinette knitting.

Which is as far as I've gotten. We'll see what happens next.