01-03-2018

The pattern won’t be released for two more days but I’ve been busy planning. I’ve made two Woodland-themed progress/stitch markers and I’ve decided on my color plan! I’m going to do an interlocking color version inspired by Lucy’s Interlocking Colour Ripple (as suggested by Jackie in the Facebook group).

The “official” blanket will have 105 two-row stripes, so that would mean 105 / 15 = 7 stripes per color. But I’m considering adding Claret (from my stash) to the palette because we have a lot of oak trees in our yard and that’s the color of autumn to me.

After playing with yarn pegs, I decided to go with Lucy’s “visual story” idea, with the grays and browns of the forest floor going up through the reds/oranges/greens to the blues of the sky. This way it’s an homage to her color plan but a variation. I’ve also added Parchment to the mix (representing the large number of birch trees in our local forests) to get enough stripes, and I’ll increase the number of stripes of the wide sections of color to 4 (instead of the 2 Lucy used in her interlocking colour ripple).

The color sequence, as shown in the rainbow yarn pegs picture, will be:

• Silver ✓ Jan 8
• Grey ✓ Jan 10
• Parchment ✓ Jan 12
• Mocha ✓ Jan 14
• Claret ✓ Jan 17
• Copper ✓ Jan 18
• Tomato ✓ Jan 21
• Spice ✓ Jan 23
• Gold ✓ Jan 26
• Mustard ✓ Jan 30
• Lime ✓ Feb 3
• Pistachio ✓ Feb 6 (74 stripes)
• Meadow ✓ Feb 10
• Cypress ✓ Feb 13
• Lincoln
• Storm Blue
• Duck Egg

The pattern will be (see Lucy’s Ta-dah post if you have trouble visualizing this):

• 4 Silver
• 1 Grey
• 1 Silver
• 4 Grey
• 1 Parchment
• 1 Grey
• 4 Parchment
• 1 Mocha
• 1 Parchment
• 4 Mocha, etc.

…

• 1 Duck Egg
• 1 Storm Blue
• 4 Duck Egg
• 1 Silver (last stripe which “overlaps” with the first one)

I will end up with 101 stripes with this scheme (6 each of the 17 colors minus one Duck Egg stripe at the end). I will then go down the sides with Silver for the first row of the border, followed by whatever border Lucy plans (being careful about the multiples).

There will be lots of left-overs from this blanket, but I’m planning a double-stranded granny stripe scrapghan to follow since I’ve already got quite a large quantity of Special DK scraps.

Roll on Friday!

01-05-2018

Joy! Lucy published the pattern this morning. Time to start swatching!!

My swatch is complete and I’m super excited about my color plan now. I think it is going to work out extremely well. My swatch measured 17.5cm with a 4mm hook which is close enough.

A few decisions I made while swatching:

• I will use the magic knot method to change colors. (Yay! No ends to weave in!!)
• I will chain 2 (instead of 3) for the first dc (UK tr) on the dc rows. (I tried using an alternate turning dc but it bulged a bit as you maybe can see in the swatch picture in the early rows. Plus the 2ch is faster/easier and makes for a nice straight edge with this pattern).
• I’ll start with chainless foundation sc with a 4.5mm hook.
• I like the interlocking ripple but I won’t use the Cloud Blue. I was considering using it as the last color in the “sky” and having the one stripe wrap around to represent the brooks on my local walks, But I decided it doesn’t blend well enough with the rest of the palette.

The pattern is a joy to work up. I may have to turn my swatch into a scarf because I love it and I’ll have plenty of yarn. [[LOL! Someone on Facebook just suggested the same thing in a comment when I posted the picture.]]

Alas, now I have to go to work so the actual start will have to wait until tomorrow morning.

01-6-2018

I got started on the foundation and first few ripple rows this morning. I ended up going with Kate’s starting technique of doing the chainless foundation sc row and the first dc row of the ripple at the same time, as she describes in her Kate’s Starting of Woodland Blanket PDF file in the Moorland and More Facebook group Files. It was just more fun this way instead of counting such a long foundation row.

It’s now bedtime and I’ve gotten several more rows done after dinner, but I’ve just noticed my first mistake -- I’ve done Silver, Grey, Silver x 4 to start instead of just Silver x 4. So now I’ll have 103 stripes which is still fine but it’s a good thing I have a spare skein of Silver in my stash. These rows are too time-consuming (about 35 minutes each) to rip back 5 1/2 stripes.

I like the pattern -- it is nowhere near as relaxing as the Hydrangea but also not nearly as hard to count as the Moorland. The front loop only sc stitches are a little slow but they’re worth it for the effect. The resulting fabric feels quite thin (less squishy) compared to the Hydrangea, and more drapey compared to the Moorland. Progress will be slow on this blanket but that is fine and I do not plan to keep up with the 18-stripe-a-week schedule of the CAL. In fact, I don’t want to make any per-week goals for this project, I just plan to make steady progress that I’ll document with photos (every three colors) and by checking off and putting the date next to the colors in the list above as I finish them.

01-26-2018

Just an update that part 4 of the CAL was released today and I am up-to-date. I am a little more than half done with the stripes now.

02-13-2018

After completing 85 stripes I’ve decided that the blanket is really long enough and that adding another 20 stripes would make it just too long. I’m going to skip the last three green/blue colors and end with the Cypress and the last, single stripe of Silver.

If I had this project to do over again, I would have stuck to Lucy’s exact palette and my six stripes of each color (instead of the pattern’s seven) which would be 90 stripes which would be perfect. I love the interlocking stripes still and I have no regrets on that.

Now I just have to wait a week and a half for the border pattern to be released. I will switch my attention back to my sister’s Seaside Winter Blanket which would be nice to get finished soon.