I took my Romberry to my knitting group last night and picked the brains of those wise in the ways of the knit. A compromise was suggested that I had not considered. I will block the ENDS of the scarf. Why did I not think of this clever idea? It will open up the stitch pattern where it is visible and yet leaves the neck alone. I knew my friends at knitting group were the ones to ask.
One of the clever people at my knitting group is called Liz, and she has recently set up a website to sell some of the lovely things that she makes, as well as some of the patterns she has written. Liz has written most of the kitty patterns I have knit. Have a look at her website to see some of her gorgeous stuff. The website is called Bettyknitter.com.
I haven't actually blocked my scarf yet because I have been blocking my KAL Blanket squares, using my new blocking board, i.e. card board box covered in cling film and gingham fabric. The board works really well and the gingham makes blocking so much easier and faster, because of being able to keep everything straight while being pinned.
These squares have been dampened with a water spray so the colours look darker than they do when dry, but you can see more clearly the colourwork than in previous photos.
I have got a bit behind on my blanket squares, so I have spent the last couple of days churning out more squares. I have chosen to speed through some of the plain stocking stitch squares so that I get caught up by the end of May. So far this week I have knit 5 and a half plain squares and they only take a couple of hours to do each one. I am intending to get another 5 or 6 done by the end of the month and then I think I will be nearly caught up with my schedule.
However, I do think I need to splash out on more pins, because I only had enough to block 4 squares at a a time. I definitely need more so that I can use my entire board.
At least once these squares are blocked I will have an idea of how the finished blanket may look and how much more yarn I am going to need to buy. I already have quite a lot of the yarn I ordered from Mary Clare, but I need to work out what else I need so Clare can put the unused yarn on the shelf for sale.
I have to admit, I am quite enjoying churning out these plain squares, it feels like I'm making really fast progress, something that rarely seems to happen to me, because I get so easily distracted. I WILL focus on this blanket (for a while anyway).
