OpArt is 2009 FO #1!

OpArt Pre Blocking
Originally uploaded by sunasak

OpArt is done, as you can see. It only took a month and two days, which is not bad, considering its size and the little things I had to make before Christmas. I spent all day yesterday finishing up on the edging, which I made with a picot bind-off. I figure that is nice and stretchy, plus the baby is a girl, so this sightly feminizes it. I must admit that the blanket does its job--if you look at it too closely, it will get your eyes all confused and start to appear to move around. It's hard to believe that such an easy pattern produces such cool results!

As you can see in the picture of the whole blanket, it does need to be blocked. The instructions warn you to not get upset when it comes off the needles, because it needs to be "severely blocked" to end up square. I'll be doing that at some point today or tomorrow, I figure. I measured it, and unblocked, it's exactly 40" across, which is what size it's supposed to be. That's a rarity for me! I am not sure whether it will block out slightly larger or not. The bigger it is, the more space for the baby to roll around and enjoy it.

The yarn is very soft and was quite nice to work with. I'd use it again in an afghan or something (KnitPicks Swish). I am going to get some Fray Check stuff and dab it on all the ends so that the back looks as neat as possible. That's for two reasons: there's no way to avoid the back showing when it wraps a baby, and I know babies tend to pick at things like yarn ends when they get a bit older, and I don't want the blanket to get picked to death (like my own baby blanket did). This baby will have a LOT of blankets, though, so who knows which one she will pick for her "lovey" if she picks any at all!

Moving On

The next project is the Baby Surprise Jacket. I just could not control myself from trying this, and I am happy to use up some of the organic yarn I bought a while back to try out organic projects. I am using O-Wool Balance, which is an organic wool/cotton blend. It is worsted weight, but I am using a size 4 needle, to get 5 stitches per inch. That supposedly makes the one year-ish size jacket, which would work for baby's first winter, I think. I am going to make a second one in sport-weight yarn for another knitting friend's baby, which will be a little younger so might need a slightly smaller jacket. That does, of course, assume I make it through this first BSJ. I am trying to follow EZ's instructions and not read any additional hints and helpers. I want to pretend to be a lady of 1968 who got the original newsletter.

I am using some new row markers to keep track of the double decreases in the BSJ pattern. I got them from Entrelac (in person, but YOU can get them from the Loopy Ewe online, or Gauge or Knitting Nest locally). They are shaped like little omegas, and really work well. They stay in when you want them to, but easily come out to move up to another row. I got these nice shiny anodized ones, because I love shiny colorful things (as you may have noticed).

I'm off to write in my personal blog, then work on the jacket, watch football, and finish taking down holiday decorations. A nice end to the holiday season!

A Fan Post about Stitch Markers

It occurs to me that I have not raved about the stitch markers I prefer to use. I will fix that now. You see, I own many stitch markers. Some of them are really lovely. I made some myself, which are really lovely. But many of them are really heavy and bug me by swinging there and getting in the way. Others are nicely done, but have edges that catch on things. Some are too fat; some are too plain.

But the ones I use the most are by Entrelac, who is a nice woman named Ana. She used to come to my LYS with her equally nice friend. I enjoyed them a lot (I think they now hang out at a new store closer to where they live, but I did see them at Kid'n Ewe). Why do I use these stitch markers? Because:

1. They do not catch on anything. No edges. This is the #1 most wonderful feature.
2. They are in pretty colors of wire and interesting metals.
3. They (at least mine) are shiny and are made of lovely little beads of various types. I can't decide whether pretty colors or shiny beads is the second best feature. These are tied.
4. They are thin enough that they don't mess up my stitches or get in my way. But they still show up.
5. They do not weigh down your lace, if that's what you're making.

I have three different sizes and colors. The ones I love the most are tiny pinkish ones with clear glass beads that have a little pink in them. When you are knitting, they look like pretty decorative jewels. I do want more, and will get some when the finances settle, I know! I was heartbroken when one of the little ones bounced off my sock and into the bowels of Bible Stadium (named after a person, not a book) in Leander during a high school football game. WAH.

The reason it occurred to me that I ought to mention my love for these stitch markers is that I read on Sheri's blog that the Loopy Ewe will be distributing them soon has been distributing them since May (I am so unobservant!). I was happy enough when Ana got an online store, but this is really good--great publicity and wider exposure. Plus, I was really tickled to see an ad for Entrelac on Ravelry! Cool! I always like it when local people doing quality work have success. It's inspirational. I know there are some similar stitch markers out there, and if you find some made by someone local, get them! Otherwise, try these! Made by a real person whom your blog-friend Suna has met!

End of completely unsolicited commercial. I get nothing out of this--I paid for my markers, with cash!

(Interesting aside, I don't think I have ever really told Ana how great I think her business is. Brilliant, huh. I guess I should. OK, I did.)

I will be traveling tomorrow so probably won't post, but will knit a lot: happy Thanksgiving to US readers!