Lopi blanket

It seems I've been awfully productive this campaign -- but the truth is that many of the things I've sent were started some time ago, and there's just been an unusual outbreak of finishing projects.




I started making squares for this blanket last spring, probably in April. I had a lot of Lopi yarn; after pulling out two sweaters' worth (one of them the blue pullover that I mailed a few weeks ago) I was left with a completely noncohesive group of colors, with no more than two balls of any one color. I started making squares -- cast on 40 stitches on size 9 (my needle for Lopi, because I knit loosely) and knit 6 rows (3 ridges) in garter stitch. Then, keeping first 3 stitches and last 3 stitches in garter, I worked back and forth in stockinette for 68 rows, then ended with 6 rows (3 ridges) in garter stitch. This provided wonderful mindless knitting. When I had 12 squares, I laid them out in the best arrangement I could find, and crocheted the squares together. I hadn't joined squares with crocheting before -- it is so fast!! I chose a medium gray, so although the joining yarn does show through a tiny bit if you look closely, it doesn't show from a few feet away. Each square took less than one ball of yarn, but two balls did not provide adequate yardage for a third square.

Colors, as usual, aren't quite right -- top photo is too dark and bottom photo is too light. But you get the picture. . . this one went off today.