Luxurious Mitred Blanket

I have incredible delusions about my knitting. When I started this blanket, from Jo Sharp Knit 9, I seriously thought that I would be finished in a month or so. What could be nicer than sitting in front of the television with a very simple knit from luxurious yarn? Hardly anything of course, but I failed to consider several important points.



1. I don't watch much television
2. I have a lot of works-in-progress, all sitting next to the couch and keen to be worked on.
3. A 5 square blanket is not very big, and lends itself to expansion.
4. Sewing up is not my favourite thing.



I've ended up with a 8 square x 6 square blanket. Clearly it is no longer according to the pattern. I do wonder if this is what always happens to mitred blankets, as there are a plethora of patterns for them on Ravelry - everyone must make their own version!



It is beautifully soft and snuggly. I feel quite decadent wrapped up in a mix of wool, cashmere,mohair, silk and alpaca, and would never have thought of making such a luxurious blanket without Jo Sharp's pattern. She uses alternating strands of Alpaca Kid Lustre, Silk road Aran Tweed and Classic Double Knitting Wool in her version, with the same colourways throughout, but my version slips in a bit of DK silk road tweed, and uses a few more colours for some subtle variation between the blocks.



I am sorry to admit that it took me nearly 2 years of patchy work to finish this project, but the good news is that I have already started another one - in cottons!

The Green Vest

This vest started out as a version of the DK vest from Jo Sharp Knit, issue 10, but unfortunately, I was only a few rows into the garter stitch rib, when I succumbed to the pleas of a customer and sold her my shop copy, after a rush on the magazine caught us all sold out.

 I quite fancy the garter stitch rib, which is simple to knit, looks pretty, but lacks the recovery of a more standard 2x2 rib.
 At this point, the vest construction started to deviate from my memory of the pattern The vest was looking rather big and boxy, so I added some more of the garter stitch ribbing to the sides in an attempt to add some shaping.
 
In retrospect, I should have added some more ribbing, or used regular 2x2 ribbing, as the vest is still a bit boxy.

By the time I came to the neck, I had decided on a v neck, rather than the round neck in the pattern, thinking I would like to wear it over a blouse with a stand and collar. I was quite happy with how this turned out.
Unfortunately, finishing the vest caused a little problem. I asked my daughter to model it for the blog, and now she won't give it back.
 Classic Double Knit Wool in shade 002, Pistachio. At least this will give me a chance to do some fitting tweaks on the next one.