Sunday, April 8, 2012

Happy Easter!

Normally I go crazy dying eggs for Easter! This year I boiled the eggs, I purchased the egg-dying kit, and then I left them both to sit as my creative side couldn't stop in the middle of different project.

For about four weeks now I have slowly, but surely, been working on a baby quilt. Initially the quilt was going to be tiny, with just a few squares. That soon changed when I spoke with my cousin Marianne (of Kasch Blog) who has a 1.5 year old child. She suggested that I make the baby blanket bigger because its period of use for the child and the parent is relatively short if it is small. In fact, she recently sewed a few of Annaliese's baby quilts together so that they could still enjoy them.

Well, I took her advice and added another two weeks of work to my project... thanks Marianne! But I am so grateful that I did because we love the finished project. The gestational period was about four to five weeks, but it was worth it.

I think that this is the biggest, longest craft project I have ever completed. It couldn't have come at a better time...

During these days, when all I can do is sit and relax at the end of a long day or on the weekend, I needed something to do. I often can't/don't feel like reading because my headache is stronger at the end of the day, so I watch TV on the internet.

Quite quickly I realized that I needed something productive to DO while I watched show after show; my therapy came in the form of knitting.
The basic stitch is about all I know, even though I've been taught to purl, so I decided to knit a bunch of squares (15 x 15 stitches). At first my goal was to use up all of the yarn in my craft supply and, fortunately enough, all of the yarn was the same size and type. After speaking with my cousin, I needed to get a few more reams in order to make the blanket bigger. And, once all of the squares were done, I decided that the blanket needed to have a border.


As you can see and tell,
I did not start with a clear picture
in mind and so this blanket is pretty country-bumpkin, but we love it.

So, this blanket has been my relief over the past few weeks. Each day I looked forward to coming home and knitting- it's been a blessing.

Family & friends have asked who will be receiving the blanket and each time I reply that I wouldn't feel comfortable giving the blanket to someone else because it is so rag-tagly put together. But the main reason is that Jim has fallen in love with this blanket and wants to keep it for the future.

So instead of dying eggs, I sewed the squares together and snipped all of the loose strands of yarn until 10 PM last night. We'll still enjoy the eggs, they just won't be decorated today or maybe at all this year.

We hope that you and yours have had a wonderful Easter! For us it's been a day of hope, friendship, and peace.

7 comments:

  1. It is sooo cute! I love it! Well done! And, Jim's right- you guys should keep that one. It's a beauty.

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    1. Thank you, Marianne! I'm grateful for your advice to make it bigger. Love you.

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  2. WOW! This has me antsy to pull my knitting supplies out of retirement! How did you stitch the squares together? It looks sooo cozy and I love the randomness of it! Life can be too coordinated and predictable some times :)

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    1. Thank you, Julie! The randomness grew on me as I continued to finish squares. In the beginning I was a bit apprehensive about how it would turn out. It was really easy for such a novice knitter. I just knitted squares 15 X 15 and then the borders are 7 stitches wide. I used a yarn needle to stitch the squares together, alternating vertical & horizontal directions. It is quite cozy!

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  3. p.s. Yes, the most used baby blankets are over-sized and soft. The ADORABLE (semi stiff) quilts that people make are really just useful as decor or floor play mats!

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  4. Looks great, Kathe. That thing is definitely knit with love (and whatever Dr. Redhead was doing on screen).

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