The needles are actually UK #9 - aluminum and about 10” long.

The yarn … There’s a tale about that. In 1991 (I have the receipt to prove it!), a co-worker and I decided to buy a knitted/braided rug kit. The idea was that I knit up the 5 stitch by 7 foot lengths that she would then braid and sew into a lovely oval rug that one of us would keep. I never heard back from her after I gave her the first few strips. I never got back to knitting more of them either. When I saw this pattern, I knew it was THE pattern to use this yarn. The kit had creamy white and pastel pink-blue-green-and white variegated. They work beautifully in this pattern. The best part? No SEWING!!

April 18, 2013
It’s finished! Well, except for the applied i-cord I want to put around it - just to finish the yarn, and there are still some ends to be woven in.

April 29, 2013
Because I had lots of the variegate leftover, I added an applied I-cord border. Grafting those last four stitches took me an hour! All ends are tucked away and the 4-stitch applied I-cord is done and its beginning and ending grafted … after a full hour of searching online to find the one set of directions that my brain could make work! (No, I forgot to take note of the link. Sorry. )

I had to stop when I ran out of the white, so it’s not a square. People’s laps aren’t necessarily square either, so that doesn’t matter.

I had begun to work back-and-forth (i.e. without turning the work) when I did a helix scarf. My tension wasn’t great then. Now, after working umpteen rows of 10 stitches-switch yarns-10 more stitches, my backwards tension is just fine and as snug as ‘normal’! Thank you, Rosemily!