when you can't just buy a blender

I don’t normally show my projects here—probably because I have too many on-the-go at once, probably because I don’t think anyone should be as fascinated by them as I am.

Today is an exception: it’s a project I’ve worked on all summer, and it’s a project that has fascinated me. And it is not one of my designs which somehow makes me more excited to bring it to your attention.

I have a family member getting married, and I have always made presents for these folk: an afghan for my brother, a quilt for my sister and another for my step-daughter. I do this because

• these people are special
• I suck at buying presents. (Sorry for the language, but no other word expresses so well how truly bad I am at this task.)

So when I really care (and can’t just buy a blender) I take the time to make something. And this family member deserved something special. He’s my step-grandson, and a designer for RIM, and the guy who did my schematics for two books (with great patience and despite thinking a sleeve was a lamp).

He, like many young people, has a black + chrome house. I decided to knit a large afghan (which could double as a smallish queen bed blanket), but how to inject colour? I did not want to be responsible for choosing a colour scheme for his home so let the Noro Kureyon do it for me. And, after some exploration, I decided to use the pattern for Pat Ashforth’s A New Angle (available on Ravelry).

So, 21 balls of NORO, 8 skeins of Cascade 220, 3 months of knitting, one week of assembly (including first washing the swatches and then the entire afghan), 2 days of sewing in tails, and here it is.

Despite what you might have taken from the previous details, it was quite easy (just garter stitch without intarsia at the join of the black and gray), it was fascinating (watching how the colours moved), and it was really fun (that addiction that one-square-at-a-time produces). 

Above all, it is a beautiful labour-of-love. I wish I could keep it—and just go buy a blender. 

 But I cannot--because this young man and his girl are beloved and family and probably already have a blender. Guess I'll just have to knit it again--which is now on my agenda because his sister is newly engaged!

 PS The details of how I did it (because it is a hugely adaptable pattern) are on Pat’s Woolly Thoughts Ravelry group under the A New Angle sewing question thread.