Temperature Blanket 2008 pt.1

I decided a couple years ago, right before I lost my crojo, to make temperature blankets for the years my children were born, and to gift those afghans to them.

I printed out temperature charts for all 3 years.  I chose as many colors as I could and put them in rainbow order, and divided the number of degrees I needed to span by the number of colors to determine how many degrees each color would be.

I chose to use the flower stitch on my daughter's blanket, and the boys both chose the Trail of Tears/Groovyghan pattern for theirs.  Any larger stitch patterns would make the blankets insanely long.  As it is, my daughters will be large enough for a queen bed.

I got everything ready and got started.  I made it through January 2008 before I suddenly lost my crojo, and it went into the tote with the colors and stayed there for a couple years.  I didn't pick it back up until I had finished the Heirloom Afghan.  

That tote and the beginning of Beth's blanket were all that was left of my worsted stash.

I wasn't burned out from the heirloom afghan, so I started back on the temperature blanket, and I'm trucking right along on it!  I've finished February, March, April and May; and, I am now working on June I expect to have it finished before the end of Feburary if I don't get too lost in packing and readying for the big move.

Heirloom Afghan take #482

I have lost count of how many times I started, frogged, and restarted trying to make an heirloom project with the yarn that was my grandmother's, the yarn an aunt sent me when I was 14, my mother's yarn when she could no longer knit or crochet, and the remnants of my own projects.  I tried a granny square blanket before I learned tension control, so the squares came out wildly different sizes. I tried a popcorn afghan but became quickly bored with the pattern. I tried a two strand single crochet bedspread pairing the heirloom yarns with white, and again became bored long before completing the project.  I tried several iterations of rugs, from 3 strands up to 6 strands, all of which buckled or somehow went wrong at approximately 5 feet across.

I'd lost my crojo for several years now, but I decided to try again recently.  I had all these huge balls of yarn, mostly 6 strand, waiting in a tote to be dealt with.  I tried separating the strands, but quickly became frustrated with that and wound them back up into 6 strand balls again.

I don't know what on Earth possessed me to try to make a California King bedspread with this yarn, but I did, and I was determined.

It took 1 week for me to have a panel 120" long and 40" wide... and I'd already exhausted the heirloom stash.  I had a big 13 pound strip, an inch thick, and a LONG way still to go.  I tied it off and decided to use my stash yarn to make 2 more panels for a complete 120" X 120" Heirloom Afghan that would have the true heirloom section in the middle.

I finished the second panel in less than a week. The third took about the same amount of time.

By the time the panels were done, I had exhausted almost my entire stash, and I had to buy more yarn for a border.

I whip-stitched the panels together, and stopped without doing the border for now.  It's roughly 45 pounds of yarn, and I'm not sure it needs a border.  I kind of like it right how it is.

28 years, the stashes of 4 family members and one friend, 3 weeks of intensive work, and I finally have my Heirloom Afghan completed.

A true work of love.