Keeping it Bright

 After finishing the last bright blanket, I got going on the next. I kept it simple (I thought...the True Tracy Way). I was going to do plain old stockinette, with garter stitch borders. Simple.

Then. Pooling. Added a second strand to try to break it up. Then a third...

These pictures were to show how blocking can make acrylic yarns look better. The spots where I was carrying yarn up a row, or over a few stitches, needed some smoothing.

I knew I would probably not have enough yarn, based on the last neon blanket I made. I had hoped 5 stitch borders instead of 4 stitches would help. Yeah, not enough. 

So on the two short ends, I picked up from the cast on/off row, and worked a garter stitch border outwards. I used the leftover yarn from the previous blanket, which had very similar colours but much longer colour runs.

Above, and below, show the blanket after blocking. In this case, blocking was machine washing and drying, then steaming with an iron. It really helps it smooth out.

The colours on the second end are a bit shorter because I didn't want to repeat the same colours as the first end, and I was excluding the black parts.  Over all, this blanket doesn't read as bright as the first one. 

Taking a picture of the scale is the safest way for me to keep track of the weights. If it works, it works, right?

Yarn In:   6477gr
Yarn Out:  9,995gr + 602gr = 10 597gr
Balance: 4120gr gr more OUT than in!
Costs:  $140.68/349 days = $0.40 per day