A growing pile of rainbows

I live in Edinburgh, so after I made a hot water bottle cover on my borrowed sewing machine, knitted a balaclava and a hat the next logical craft project was a nice cozy blanket.

cloud and rainbow hot water bottle cover

Having recently discovered the joys of circular needles – perfect for balaclava and hat – I have stuck with them for making my nanna squares.  

circular needles - knitting squares

In Norway in February it turned out that the only thing that was cheap-(ish) was the wool. 

So my blanket got started on Norwegian wool left over from the hat knitting projects and received a mighty boost by my boyfriend allowing me to unravel an old and rather holey Norwegian jumper. That is where the red – my dominant colour comes from and I had almost as much fun unravelling it as I am having knitting it back up again. It is perhaps an odd statement to make but I happen to find unravelling, de-tangling and mending relaxing.

It is a bitsy blanket, absorbing all wool that I come across – lots of bright colours and a few sombre tones as well. My latest addition is a pink wool alpaca blend that came from the Scottish isle of Aran, chunky and bright enough to bring cheer to even the grey day that was our Summer solstice.

Scottish and Norwegian wool to keep me warm

Each piece has a different mood: some have been made on evenings in with my boyfriend watching West Wing, or listening to the radio while he worked, some have been knitted while I sat home alone watching movies, one got finished while I listened to my Tolkein audio book on a rainy afternoon, others have been worked on out in the world at my craft group or writing group and there was even an evenings knitting in the passenger seat driving across the UK. So the blanket, when it is made will hold many memories already – and go on to have more as it takes it's place in my life.

My mum is visiting in August – and is bringing me some treasures from down under. She asked if I wanted any of the previous homemade blankets packed and flown over, and I said no, I am making a new one. She is a knitter and a writer too, and understands the practical magic we weave when we sit down with needles and yarn. And how even when things go a little awry it does not matter too much because you can always unravel and start over. 

She knows about the soothing effects of knitting something which has...

'… no practical use

that I've discovered,

except to occasionally

cover my legs on a wintry night

when the wood fire is low.

The colours are soft pinks and blues

the texture, angora,

grown, spun and dyed by a friend

whose son has ms – her sanity.'

Exerpt from Sitting Knitting, Dr Helen Sheil – 60 Ahead – A timely collection.

I am itching to sew the squares (ok they are rectangles...but anyway) together, but I also want to wait in case I get new colours so I can make sure the colours get an even distribution.

So for now I have a growing pile of rainbows. With luck it will be finished in time to put it on my mum's bed when she gets here. 

growing pile of rainbows

This blog is posted in conjunction with Natural Suburbia's Creative Friday.