Completely Pointless and Arbitrary

I joined a "Completely pointless and arbitrary" Ravelry swap a little while back. My swappee sent me a lovely and not at all pointless chapstick holder which she put on a key ring so I could always have gloss with me.

It took some time for me to decide what to make for my swappee in return. Until I found this , the most pointless (but quite funny!) pattern I could find....



Swine flu masque!

Luckily my swappee has a sense of humour and she has young children so I'm sure it will get some use at some stage.

Unfortunately choosing the swine flu mask was somewhat ironic as our house has been plagued with the flu for what feels like months now (in reality just a few weeks). I am desperately awaiting the arrival of spring, some warm weather, and hopefully an end to these nasty winter ailments. My knitting, and life in general, has pretty much come to a standstill in the meantime. I'll be glad when things get back to normal!

Labour of Love

Yes. That is M's blanket. And yes, it is FINISHED.

I can't even begin to describe how pleased I am to have this done. Two years in the making, many hours of knitting, much procrastination. A gift that was meant for her first Christmas, then postponed for her first birthday - I did in fact finish it off in time for her 2nd birthday earlier this week. A birthday that unfortunately was spent sick with the flu, the blanket came in very handy this week as we've spent many many hours cuddled up on the couch.



I ended up altering my original "plan" to make the blanket a bit bigger and wider. It's pictured on a queen bed so should be a good size for on top of a single bed with a body under it. The squares are 20cm x 20cm but I knit a larger 40cm panel for the middle and used intarsia to make a traditional Maori design bordering her name and DOB (hence the blanking out). It seems almost surreal looking at her date of birth with the 07 on the end. I'm having a hard time believing my baby is TWO!!



I knit the black squares and a couple of the coloured ones. All the rest were donated by a special group of women I feel very privileged to have been a part of. And while I don't 'see' them as much anymore I consider myself very lucky to call each of them my friend. The blanket will comfort and warm, every square reminding me of a time when those friends saved me from the loneliness of adjusting to a new place far away. Without their daily companionship and support my life would have been very sad and empty. I miss you all x



Enough with the mushy and sentimental?

Most of the squares are garter or moss , a few are stocking with a garter border. A lot of the black squares I knit as mitred squares because I liked the motivation of an ever decreasing number of stitches. I also used a couple of dishcloth patterns just to try something a bit different. I have to say that endless 20cm squares are not something I will be knitting again in a hurry. Likewise the "fun" part of picking up stitches for the border (about 8 rows garter with little mitered squares at the corners - thank you RoseRed for your help with that) is something I won't be rushing to do again anytime soon. That being said this was a BIG project with a BIG timeframe and even with all the stalling along the way I am really thrilled with the outcome. It's not perfect but it was knit with lots of love and hopefully M will treasure it as much as I treasure her. I have to admit to secretly hoping she'll be able to wrap up her own babies with it one day.

Oops back to the mushy and sentimental, probably a good place for me to sign off!