An Adventure

I have 3 or so more sewing projects to show, but here's a brief interlude. I thought the other day that I hadn't been on kijiji.ca for quite awhile. This is sort of like Craig's List. I went to the hobby section and was browsing for knitting machines and yarn. I found an ad for someone looking for someone to repair her son's favourite blankie. How could I not respond to that?!

Alison brought the blankie over yesterday. It is indeed, a very well loved blankie (and we know well loved blankies here!). Her mother had made it when he was born, eight years ago. She had done some repairs, but it was falling apart again and she couldn't knit anymore. It was knit all in one piece, from end to end. There is an embossed/texture design of diamond lattice work, and the edges are in double moss stitch. The stitches that had run down from the cast off row I was able to ladder back up, hopefully getting them correctly into the pattern. The sides and bottom are a different story.

Alison said it was okay if it ended up a bit smaller or a different, not quite rectangular, shape. My plan is to cut off the bottom up to where the repairs are (a white blotch), unravel the top edge back to the start of the edging, and pick up stitches on the sides, in the first complete column that runs the whole length, and then knit a new edging outwards in one piece. By doing the edging this way, any future repairs will be easy. The yarn appears to be Bernat CottonTots. I say this because it is a cottony feeling yarn, with a single binder. Bernat Cot'nSoft has two binder threads that crisscross. Bernat is a popular yarn here, and Alison says it was infact light blue when new, and CottonTots comes in a light blue. It has lost some of the texture of the CottonTots, but I don't think it was a smooth yarn either when the blanket was new. There isn't any Patons yarn that matches. I'm pretty sure it's not Mission Falls 1824, that would have been much heavier, they don't seem to have a light blue (although their colours do change), and it would have been expensive for a baby blanket (although I know people who would use it). Sirdar is another popular choice, but nothing matches in the Ravelry database. Same with LionBrand. It's funny, when I first touched the blanket, I immediately thought of CottonTots and Cot'nSoft. Both of which I've used. It's fun playing yarn detective, although this was a relatively easy case, considering I was knitting 8 years ago in the land of Spinrite (home to Patons/Bernat). The use of a single binder thread simplified it even more.

I'm undecided though how to treat the edges where I'll be cutting off the ratty unravelled parts. Should I sew down the center of the column of sts I want to pick up next to, like doing a steek? What about all the ends then? Weave them all in, individually? Oh boy. I don't like to weave in ends when I knit because A) I often unravel, and B) I prefer to 'duplicate stitch' them to make them really hidden. Any ideas? I'm off to see if I can get CottonTots at Michaels or Zellers!