Letters
I Don’t Want This to End
Dear Kay,
I made a dozen potholders in a week. I made a sweater in a week. Things are coming to an end too fast for me these days.
I’m feeling the lack of a gargantuan project, so the other night I waddled over to my tray of Felted Tweed, which has been resting decoratively in the corner of the room since I finished my intarsia scarf.
It’s time, I thought. It’s now. It’s time for a whopper.
Let’s Have a Look, Shall We?
The project is the Garter Stripe Shawl (Rav link), one of the most epic projects we have featured in a Field Guide. I’ve had it in my queue since we first saw Kaffe Fassett’s (large) swatch for it, back before Field Guide No. 13: Master Class had a definite shape.
The final shawl clocks in at 42″ x 72″ (106 cm x 182 cm). Three and a half feet by six feet, basically.
This is me, five years from now.
It’s not a throw. It’s not quite a blanket. It’s a thranket, and I am here for it.
It’s Kaffe Fassett as his most elemental: stripes, in garter stitch, in varying widths and (of course) varying colors.
The pattern calls for 14 colors in varying quantities, so we cooked up a bundle for that in the MDK Shop because we knew that somewhere, somebody was going to need to jump on this thing.
This is what garter stitch was born to be.
It’s a robust quantity of yarn (30 balls is what I call robust). But it’s the yarn you need for the project that will be your enduring companion for the weeks and quite possibly months, years, and decades ahead.
I’m going with my Tray of Snax. I reserve the right to augment my bits ’n’ bobs, but I’m hoping I can work with what I’ve got here.
How’s this going to go? I have no idea.
Really, I’m off to the races. Now that I’ve cast on 252 stitches.
I have a lot of thoughts and superspecific Rules I’m going to be using, but let’s not get too far into the details right now. For the moment, I’m lobbing out this postcard just to mark the embarkation, the sunset sailaway, the first stop on what looks to be a trip around the world. “We made our flight! We’re on our way! I almost lost my passport!”
Love,
Ann
Bon voyage, Ann! (and some of us are really wondering about those super specific rules….)
Your journey sound grand. Do make time to visit us in NZ. Maybe if you call in, it will convince you to ship to NZ as well. I am ever hopeful.
Seconded by this Kiwi – would love the MDK field guides in book form….
Hmm, maybe we need some white-glove delivery service to New Zealand, namely ME. I’d love to visit your beautiful country (and bring you some yarn!).
Have fun! I’m a little over halfway through mine, but have put it away for the summer as my lap doesn’t need the heat. I’m guessing I will be done next winter. It’s been fun watching it grow!
I also made one last year using leftovers from a log cabin blanket. It was a fun and slightly addictive project. Amazingly, my husband has become its biggest fan. The man who doesn’t like sofa clutter wants this blanket draped over the loveseat on permanent display 🙂
I have about 6″ left of mine. I’m making it 7 feet long to be big enough to cover my sleeping husband when he falls asleep on the sofa.
My tip for handling the length is to roll up the bottom 2/3 and stuff it into a project bag, after tieing the wad up with a length of yarn I don’t mind wasting.
I’ve gone through every dark suspenseful Netflix series I could find while making this and its been the best way to spend Winter and Spring nights.
I am also binge-ing on dark series. Real crime podcasts and the minds of the cruel & twisted.
Wow, way to overachieve . . . !!!!!!
There does come a time when you’ve got a LOT of knitting there–thanks for the tip on how to wrangle it.
I’m on season 8 of Homeland right, as dark and gritty as it gets. I don’t think I could manage anything more than this garter stitch at the moment.
Cyndy! Who knew? Looking forward to seeing it in person SOON!
This looks terrific! A perfect 2021 project! I am tempted (as my stash looks at me reproachfully). Thirty balls isn’t that many!
I made one last year…it was absolutely the project I needed while isolating at home….I too thought I’d just use up my stash but fell in love with the colors chosen by Kaffee…so there are a couple of very close substitutes but I bought more as needed. I love it! I’m thinking of doing another one in primarily blues and greens…we’ll see…I used this one all winter primarily as a throw…
How nuts are we that a second version of this giant project doesn’t seem like that big a deal? ; )
I think the random width stripes are such a template–so curious to see how a totally different palette would behave in it.
I just cannot imagine myself doing this for months and months. I will get distracted by a nice pair of socks and that will be that.
Thranket!!! LOL
Ann, what a perfect description. Thranket. This looks like a great project.
I adore your writing. I am actually coming to the end of Kaffe’s Paint Daubs blanket, another epic getaway and it’s glorious. Thank you, MDK for felted tweed and always making me smile.
Paint Daubs! So good! Yes to epic getaways!
Oh Ann, I am so so tempted.
This project is most beautiful in it’s simplicity. The fabulous factor multiplies with each additional color. Am 1/3 of the way through, and don’t want it to end. Enjoy!
Yes, Roslyn! I’m already feeling a thrill at every color change. How great that you’re already a third of the way through yours.
Thranket!! Great name. Can’t wait to see it unfold.
Love this! I am planning this as my epic fall project. I have all the yarn but cannot cast on now as I have a few WIPs that must been done sooner rather than later. The temptation is great – not sure if my willpower to resist will prevail.
Might as well get a start on it, Dee! It’s the sort of thing that I’m going to keep nearby for Zoom calls and TV that is too compelling for complicated knitting.
I started this when I first got the Field guide diligently following the pattern until about the 5th orn6th stripe the began randomly adding color and stripe thickness as the mood hit me. It was my meditation knit. Finished it off short about 1 1/2 feet but it was big enough to wrap around my elderly mother. Will need to consider completing a second one.
I hope the super specific plans include a team of elves that will weave in the ends. This is the thing… and probably the only thing… that would potentially stop me on a project of this scale. I think if I ever were to do this (and it’s not out of the question!) I might have to have a rule about end-weaving as I go along. Like every such and such number of inches before any more knitting is allowed! Or… is this a tube and the ends will be sealed inside forever? I suppose that’s another possibility… but would be verrrrry heavy? Great post, great project, and the yarn… OH it is just so yummy.
OK Jodine, I’ll let you in on the easiest hack to avoid weaving in ends: spit splicing! When you’re at the end of a color, stop with 8 stitches left on your left needle. Break the old color at about 4″ (10 cm), and follow Kate Atherley’s advice in this MDK post for splicing the two ends together:
https://www.moderndailyknitting.com/2018/09/28/techniques-in-depth-tie-or-die/
Then continue your knitting–the spliced ends are not noticeable in the finished fabric. It’s just magic.
This completely eliminates weaving any ends (except at the beginning and end of the project). It’s a game changer.
I assume this wonderous technique works for 100% wool only? Great tip!
What timing! I *just* ordered my kit for this project from MDK! It is so beautiful, I can’t wait to get started.
Oh, Holly, you are in for a treat. I’m now on Stripe Number 5 and I’m totally hooked. Have fun with this! I don’t think it’s going to take you five years to finish.
I love this blanket and the tweed. My problem is what do you do when it needs cleaning? It’s too big to handwash. If I knew the solution I do believe I’d give it a try.
I wash my blankets in my bathtub. Just take care when you take it out of the tub to avoid stretching the wet fibers, and spread it out on as many towels as you can assemble. Roll it up, squeeze it a bunch, then let it dry.
my question is, does the garter stitch get old after a while or do the stripes keep you interested?
I love having a big easy project to snack on when everything in life feels too hard. I have 3 big blanket scarves that have been in the pile of things to turn to when feeling down for anywhere from 1 to 5 years. One day, I might finish all of them, but who knows? They give me extra peace when life and even my knitting projects feel too effortful. (Blanket scarf = blarf? Scanket?)
Slanket!
I’m on my third shawl. I’m addicted big time with yummy colors for each one. I’m glad we still have cool nights as it’s all I’m using right now
I made this a while back and I had so much fun! Don’t ask me how plain old garter stitch can stay so interesting for so long, but it did. The colors, the felted tweed—I loved it all.
I was wondering about that.
I had so much fun making my “thranket” that I immediately cast on another! Perfect TV project, especially for shows with subtitles…!
It’s amazing to think that something so beautiful emerges from such knitting simplicity. I love the meditative garter stitch.
252 stitches.
This mysterious number. So specific.
And mysterious rules?
Gurl, you and Kaffe KNOW how to turn “garter stitch in stripes” into a nail biter. Looking forward to updates.
Ann, I started mine last winter and was about 1/2 way through when spring/summer weather got too warm to hold it on my lap. As soon as it cooled off in the fall I picked it up again, and I finished just in time to give it to myself for Christmas last year. It was wonderful pandemic knitting, perfect for soothing the spirit and movie and zoom knitting. I followed the pattern for stripe width and colors with only a few substitutions (I wasn’t crazy about the vaseline or electric greens, for example, but I substituted avocado and a few other colors which were in the same color family as the pattern colors, using leftovers from a Moderne Baby Blanket and a few hats, then ordering more of everything as I needed it). I absolutely love it. It’s a perfect warm shawl folded in half the long way, and at full size or folded in half across the short width it’s just big enough to add an extra cover in bed or as a throw . My husband thinks it is my best knitted FO ever. He hasn’t taken it from me (he has another blanket I made with yarn that isn’t half as nice, which he loves) but he likes to look at it. And I got lots of oohs and ahhs when I finally was able to show it off to my knitting group when we finally met in person again just last month. It will be an entry at the county fair this year…. Thank you Kaffe and MDK for the inspiration, pattern, and my new favorite yarn!
I really don’t need this. I really don’t need this. I really don’t need this……..but I really really really want it!
I embarked on my journey just after I got this Field Guide so I may be about 6 months into it I don’t work on it constantly but go back to do some especially if I need something simple while watching a lot of action on tv and I have just begun the return journey and also changed the way I hide my ends also some of the original colours I couldn’t get when I started but as the months have gone by I can get them so it won’t be a mirror image which I think will still work really well