Koigu scraps blanket almost done!
Over the weekend I finished the third strip and sewed it to the blanket, and then decided to wash and block the whole thing to see how big it would get. I absolutely love the way Koigu feels after it's washed, when the wool relaxes and blooms but somehow still manages to keep the "crisp" texture I like so much. You'd think with this many colors in one piece that the bleeding would have been significant when I washed it, but actually there was nearly NO bleeding at all! There was a bit of a pink tint to the water but hardly anything to be alarmed about. The two white stripes are still as white as they ever were.
In this closeup I can identify specific colors and remember which projects they came from, and it literally warms my heart. Reminds me of the original reason people started quilting (to use up leftovers from their sewing projects). The speckled pink in the lower right-hand corner? That's from the October Leaves fingerless mitts, which I never posted a real FO post about (note to self: get someone to take a picture for you!). The sort of bright pink/purple/yellow to the left of it? Came from my Tramonto Shawl! Which also happens to be the first pattern I ever designed in Koigu . . . looking at this blanket makes me think of all those cool projects and how much I love Koigu. I smile every time I look at it!
Surprisingly, this 3-strip-wide blanket is quite big already. It's definitely big enough for a throw to cuddle under on the couch. I still have more Koigu scraps left over though, so I started on a fourth strip. In its current configuration this blanket works with the stripes vertical (as you see in the picture), but after adding a fourth strip it will need to be rotated 90 degrees in order to be used. I layed it out that way and decided I liked the way it looked with the strips going the other direction, so that's my current plan. I think it will be big enough to put on my queen size bed, although not big enough to hang over the sides.
Depending on how it looks when the fourth strip is added I may end up doing a wide border . . . but not in just one color, that would need to be done with scraps too to keep the overall look cohesive. I'll need way more scraps to do that though! Which means I should probably dig out all those almost-finished FOs and get them done already so that I can appropriate their leftovers . . .
Oh and I'm planning to write up instructions on how I did this so that others can use up all THEIR scraps of sock yarn. We all have tons of them, I know!
2 Responses
Susan Kennedy
I love this…I have made long skinny scarves in stripes from leftovers…but now I’ll try a blanket…waiting for the pattern…it looks like you have a K every row border?
Julie
October 07, 2010
wow, what a great idea!! It looks amazing.