neadods | Pondering the Knitalong

I'm beginning to miss knitting. I am not, however, missing the generic little squares I was knitting at ChicagoTARDIS, nor any of the other projects that I've poked around while going through my knitting stuff. (I think one of my tasks this weekend is going to be looking at everything on needles and deciding which stays and which is unravelled for scrap.)

Today is "odd job" day in the daily cleanup rotation. The chosen odd job has been to reverse engineer Cottage Crafter's Rambling Rows Afghan of which there are two pictures here. (Isn't the organic cotton one just beautiful?)

Anyway, I have the booklet with the pattern... somewhere... but it's supposed to be in only 5 colors and done in mitered blocks that are picked up directly from the previous block. (The first picture is an excellent example of what that looks like when you're done, with that ridge in each piece.)

Well. I have lots and lots of different yarns to Do Something with. And I don't like having big projects to haul around when I'm knitting just one little bit, as the Doctor Who scarf taught me. So, like I said, reverse-engineering - not just to figure out which pieces I'd need to do the original pattern in separate blocks, but also how many different colors can be used while preserving the general symmetry.

Because I'm thinking that this is probably an excellent new idea for the knitalong blanket project. It would use up a variety of yarns, the pieces aren't the same shape (to keep from being bored) and there's nothing stopping me from using a different stitch pattern with every change in color (to REALLY keep me from being bored). (19 colors, in case anyone was interested, and any given color/pattern need be used only 4 times, maximum.)

Now the question is deciding what to do with what I've already knitted for the original knitalong checkerboard pattern. ~~I may lay out the pieces and see how many more I'd need to do a lap quilt and then just set aside the yarn for that, as opposed to push towards a full blanket.~~ Or see if I can simply take some as the smallest squares for the new idea. ETA: Yup, they'll fit beautifully... and there are just enough of them already done.

Which is nice, because that means that I've already gotten a start on the project. And knowing how long it took to make them lets me know how long I'll take to make the rest of the quilt, assuming garter stitch - a not-scary-at-all 104 hours, plus sewing together time.

In other news, I can hardly wait until the Burger King "Big Day" ad goes off the radio. It's okay when the pilot says he ate at BK and his "Big Day" will be taking a 747 in a barrel roll. It's just that whenever the rodeo guy says he ate at BK "...and today, the bull rides me!" my mind goes straight to The Bad Place.