purlsandmurmers

The Joys of Mindless Knitting

I found myself caught between projects upon completion of the Blue Wave Wrap.  I had a bag of yarn for a project I really wanted to knit, based solely on the yarns and colors, but I did not yet have a pattern.  I had other projects as well, but that bag of colored yarns was calling my name.  

In the meantime, it was not like I didn't have other projects crying out for attention after all.  Three of then to be exact.  I picked up the cotton wrap I started in order to have a portable, easy, project that could be be knitted while chatting with others.  You can see the full progression of the colors in the swatch above.  The colors remind me of Nantucket, and Nantucket can easily be cool enough in the morning or evening to require a wrap, so I am calling it Nantucket Summer.  Even though I am not in Nantucket, knitting this project brings back many happy memories of lazy days and walks on that island.  I've used up two of my eight skeins of the background color and gotten one full color repeat; I can state that this length will work and the wrap is therefore about a quarter done.  I will end up having some of the lighter blue-gray and blue-green yarns left over but should use up everything else.  

 

As much as I am happy with the cotton wrap however, my attentions were also pulled back to the temperature blanket.  I had put it aside just as I began knitting April.  Even though I didn't start this project until March, it has become abundantly evident that I am not the kind of person who can routinely knit one garter ridge a day. I am more of an all-in, or all-out kind of person.  I knit and knit and knit and knit, until I am bored with something and then I work on something else.  

Truthfully this has been true my whole life.  I do finish things, but I don't necessarily work on them at an even pace straight through.  In fact the only thing I consistently manage to accomplish in a routine, orderly, evenly-paced way is housekeeping, and that only because doing so allows me more time for my passions.  That doesn't mean that housework doesn't fall by the wayside; everything fell by the wayside over the past two years between falls, and cardiac irregularities and cancer, and I am just beginning to get myself back on an even keel.  

 

But, blankets.  Above is April.  The project is fun because it is fun to see what is going to happen next.  I get long calming rows of garter stitch, a great meditative and relaxing knit, and I get fun color changes. Well, I also love knitting with Rowan's felted tweed.   I was so excited about knitting April that I thought I could knit straight through and get caught up, at least until the end of June.  

 

I finished May in 5 days, 34 garter rows, or 68 rows total.  There are three ridges at the end of each month representing the average high for that month.  As you can see, May is warmer, more pink rows heading into red.  In fact the average high in May 2022 was 10 degrees higher than our historical average high for May.  Knitting this blanket is bringing all kinds of interesting information into my head.  

May 2022 was as hot as May 2012, my first year here, the year I thought we had been crazy to move here from New York and I terribly missed the cold.  I don't think it even got below 50 in January or February that year, and I was in shock.  Perhaps I still am, although there have been colder winters and milder springs.  Every year in the past 10 years has been above our historical average, although there have occasionally been wide temperature swings.  But that is not just true of Knoxville.  The phenomenon is much more widespread. For me, a person who does not thrive in the sun and who hates heat (yes I know I grew up in Texas), all I can do is bear up and remind myself it could be worse. Actually, there have been worse years, heat-wise at least, here since I moved here.  

 

It would be fascinating to knit a series of temperature blankets over the course of a person's life, at least if that person stayed in one place as their home base.  Moving could be problematic.  Regional differences would not be terribly significant, but wider moves would throw everything off, at least if one was comparing one blanket to the previous one as there would be no fixed comparison point.  I've moved too much, although given the internet, one could get that information for any locale.  Just random thoughts, I am not (yet) contemplating knitting a series of blankets.  

 

Anyway, as I finished knitting May, I was hit by a case of ennui.  I still wish, on an intellectual level at least, to finish June, but I am less thrilled about the prospect.  There will be wider swaths of a single color. Although not changing colors will be slightly faster, it will also be more boring. Therefore I do not believe I will be as devoted to the project and finish it up in another five days, although it is possible I could surprise myself.

Temperature Blanket: First Quarter 2022

How has it been a month since I last posted?  Sometimes it feels like the year is marching along and I am still dilly-dallying in first gear.  I suppose it doesn't really matter, I don't have to be anywhere in particular, and life is good whether fast or slow, but lately it seems I have been running rather on the slow side. 

 

I have not gotten back to my cardigan, although I did just finish the second round of swatches and think I am now settled on needle size and gauge.  Next up is to redo the math and write out the pattern with the alterations I intend to make.

In the meantime, the temperature blanket is moving along nicely.  Shown above is the first quarter of the blanket, representing daily high temperatures here in Knoxville Tennessee for the first quarter of the year.  The idea is to knit one garter ridge for each day of the year (two rows). 

 

Considering that I did not start this project until March 1, I think I am doing well.  If I knit two garter ridges each day of this month, I will be caught up by the end of May.  I will be traveling much of June however and am not convinced I will take the blanket with me, so I will fall behind once again.  I have made my peace with that.  Although I can easily knit one or two garter ridges a day and still work on other projects, I don't by nature tend to run that way.  I tend to toss myself completely into a project, losing all sense of time, until I put it down.  Then I repeat the process with another project.  I suppose in one sense this contributes to the fact that I feel like I rarely finish anything.  On the other hand I am rarely bored.

 

In love this project.  I love the yarn, Rowan's felted tweed, which is 50% wool, 25% alpaca, and 25% rayon.  Generally rayon is not my favorite thing, but it adds a nice drape, and I love the rough wooly softness of the yarn, the colors, and the way the colors are playing with each other.  I see much inspiration for future color combinations.  Although I do not want to knit only blankets, I remain obsessed with the idea.  As I stated, neither this blanket, nor the alpaca blanket, will be finished before the end of the year.  

 

At the moment, this blanket has provided a necessary bit of calming knitting at a time when my mental focus was not up to knitting that required greater focus. I suppose this is one reason I tend to have multiple projects going at any given time.  A long time ago I realized that it was not true that I never finished anything, I do finish, although sometimes there are long stretches where it seems like nothing is happening.  I have also learned that I cannot force myself into being a completely sequential, one project at a time person.  Rather than finishing more, I actually do less when forced into that pattern, as it is against my nature, and I do grow bored and eventually resentful.    Much better to follow the path of least resistance, and let my mind focus on whatever ephemera captures its attention on any given day.  I've earned this.

 

Current Project Update

I spent a little time yesterday getting my active knitting projects in order.  Yes, projects.  I currently have four active projects, although only 3 of them are on the needles at this moment.  

 

In some ways this seems strange, and perhaps a little stressful, as I am entering a couple of very busy months and I feel like I am behind on absolutely everything.  On the other hand, the four projects are on four very different needle sizes, and none of them are particularly complex patterns, so I have four options for daily stress relief, depending on my state of mind and the flexibility of my hands at any given moment.

 

Why don't we take a look at what is going on?

 

First up, a pair of socks.   I started these immediately after finishing the Shawlography shawl and are being knit with the leftover yarn from that project.    I had a rough plan for striping and how to use the yarn in my head and I made great progress in the beginning, finishing the leg, and knitting the heel, only to loose interest and motivation.  Ultimately I admitted that I did not like my initial striping pattern and I decided to rip out the sock and begin again, ripping to the point just past the last dark purple stripe you see in the above photo.

I like the new striping sequence better, and I am ready to knit the short-row heel, but the last few evenings I have been quite tired.  Other projects have taken precedence.

 

I have also started a summer cardigan.  This project is being knit using two strands of a sport weight tweedy yarn from Lana Grossa, About Berlin Spotty, and a strand of the thread-weight Diamante.  I am knitting using size 10 needles and am getting a light fabric that is coming in at just under 4 stitches per inch.   The pattern and the yarn are both from L'Atelier in Redondo Beach, California.

I am not far on this yet, only about 5 inches into the back, but you can see the fabric and the pattern above.

 

The other two projects are long-term projects that I do not think I will finish before the end of the year.

First up is the Alpaca blanket, on which I have made no progress since I last posted about it in February.  This is the same photo I posted at that time.  I probably will not pick it up until I finish at least one of the above two garment projects, and it may wait until late May or June, when life will hopefully be a little less hectic.  Each time I pick it up I intend to finish another modular block, and as the blanket is already 3' x 3' those squares will increase in size, and require an ever larger investment in time.  Leaving this on the needles for long periods is not an option however, so it will serve more as a transitional project between other pieces.

I also became intrigued by the idea of a temperature blanket and so I began yet another blanket project.  Blankets remain on my mind.   This one was inspired by posts over at Modern Daily Knitting, and following their lead I am knitting my blanket in Rowan's Felted Tweed using Kaffe Fassett's Garter Stripe Shawl Pattern, using one garter stripe for the high temperature for each day of the year in 2022. 

 

Please note that I did not start knitting this until March 1, and although I was eagerly knitting it for almost a week, I then put it aside until a day or two ago. I started off behind and I am still behind.  What you see in the photo is only the first half of January.  I do think I will be mostly caught up by sometime in May, at. which point I may be able to progress by knitting one ridge per day, with the exception of post-travel catch up here and there.  Blanket projects are basically too big to be traveling projects.

 

Truthfully I dithered with the blanket idea and it took me until the end of February to figure out my plan and acquire the Felted Tweed.  I am not worried about the yarn acquisition.  I have fallen in love with this yarn and have several projects I want to knit with it, especially some color work projects for the house.  One of my goals for this year was to accumulate a small collection of Felted Tweed consisting of at least single balls in every color, which I could add to as new colors became available.  In the end I will probably do something similar with a fingering weight yarn as well -- creating my own palettes, always available when the urge to play strikes.

 

 

 

Whatever Else is Going On, Knitting Will Happen

What can I say?  It's been a month.   That statement is intentional in all its potential interpretations. 

 

It has been a month of pulling myself together, of putting to rights, of overwhelm, and ultimately of acceptance.  2022 has opened with a growing acceptance that my diverse interests are not, in fact, in competition for my time, but that each and every amorphous idea and unfinished yet ongoing piece, is in fact a thread in a more complex cloth, the fabric that makes up a person. Me.  

 

There has been much activity around finally unpacking, around sorting and cataloging.  These are seemingly mundane, perhaps even obsessive qualities, and yet they are necessary.  I need to find materials.  I need to know what I have, to be inspired.  For all the exhaustion unpacking entails, it also feeds an imaginary world filled with ideas.

 

Although my imagination has remained fertile, my body has often been overwhelmed by fatigue.  Actual knitting therefore tended toward the repose of simple repetition.   Another block on a garter stitch blanket perhaps?  Yes. 

I finished stage three of the Stephen West MKAL shawl about a week after my last post.  At the same time I felt plagued by trepidation concerning the next stage.  I feared the border could either pull the shawl together or send it off into clownish carnival-land. I felt too sapped of strength to carry on.   Enter deep purple alpaca.  The blanket is now about three feet square.  It is actually a nice lap robe size, and it has warmed my legs on cool evenings. 

Blanket knitting also allowed time for my misgivings concerning the shawl border to subside.   With thought, and some quick sampling, it seemed that four colors, rather than five, would work.  I am now knitting the border and loving every moment of it.

 

Do we note the similarities in colors between these two projects?  Do we wonder why I get myself so worked up about the worthiness of my own choices?  I am surrounded with them, with myself then, every day.  You would think I would have learned by now what works.  And yet refinement is an ongoing thing, not a competition, not a need to do less, but a process of allowing more ideas in and then those ideas battle it out between themselves to see what works in this moment.  Obviously this is a purple, green and pink moment.

2021 In Review

All in all, 2021 was a good year for knitting, certainly the most productive I've had in quite a few years.  I finished eleven projects, only 4 more than in 2020, but that makes this the most productive year since moving to Knoxville at the end of 2011.  In 2011 I completed 12 projects.  Part of me wants to say here's to beating that, but really it is not about the number of things I knit but rather the process of purposeful making.  Sometimes, however, I have been known to miscalculate.

More specifically, I knit:

    1. Four objects for the home, of which two were deconstructed from one larger blanket, reassembled and partially reknit. Both were given away.  

    2. Three cardigans

    3. Three scarves

    4.    One hat.

 

Two of the scarves, and one of the household objects, a thick wool hot pad for use with a rectangular baking dish, were constructed out of remnants and left-over bits of yarn.  Somehow this makes them feel like bonuses, almost like creating something from nothing, even though I know this is not quite true.

 

My plans were admittedly more ambitious.  I planned to finish more garments, at least one if not two blankets, catalog my yarn stash and make significant inroads to the UFO pile. None of that happened.  I also bought more yarn than I actually knit.  I don't know how much yarn exactly, although I see it piled up in a basket in by my television chair.  At least I only bought enough extra yarn that it still fits in that basket.  I didn't catalog the yarn as it came in, although that was my intention.  Cataloging fell by the wayside.  I did catalog yarn as I started projects however, so I know that I knit 47.25 skeins.  I am happy with that.

 

l already know I want to finish at least one blanket in 2022, fully aware that bigger projects also mean fewer finished objects.  But as I said who cares.  Most of us, at least most of us who read this blog, really are not in need of anything much, myself included.  I can buy a blanket or a sweater if I need one.  I would rather knit.  

 

All I ask of 2022 is that I take the opportunity to seize onto what makes me happy.

 

 

 

Tending to Loose Ends

As the year winds down, some form of end-of-year madness occupies the knitter's brain.  Although the blanket was never intended to be finished in this calendar year, the thought of finishing two projects remains within the realm of possibility.

 

To that end, I spent a good chunk of time on Saturday with finishing the Raspberry Confection cardigan, which has been languishing in my knitting basket for nigh unto two months now.

I was somewhat worried about seaming the lace sleeves and setting them into the body of the sweater, although in retrospect that anxiety was much over-blown.  Easy peasy.  As often seems to be the case, more time is wasted in anxiety than in just doing whatever task comes along that causes the anxiety in the first place.  The setting-in of sleeves was simple, the only problem I had was joining the neck band at the back neck, where the three-needle bind off was slightly bulkier than the rest of the seam and my fingers were a little recalcitrant.  That particular seam may yet be ripped and redone, or it may simply serve the purpose of reminding myself that the best we can do at any given moment is often enough. My closet contains several purchased garments with less than perfect seams.

There remains a question concerning which part of my existing wardrobe will play nicely with this cardigan.  I finished the knitting at the time of the great closet-emptying, with most of the potential play-dates going to new homes. And so, in a fit of anxious pique, the blouse shown in this photo was also altered, in hopes that the two pieces would play nicely together.  That is proving to be not quite so simple:  they play nicely on the hanger but not so much with the other residents of the closet.  

 

When I was younger, I always had to let new clothes marinate in my closet for a while before I actually wore them anyway.  Things aren't people of course, but it always seemed like any newcomers needed to hang out in the crowd for a while, just to get the feel of the place and make friends. Or perhaps that is all about me and not so much the clothes. 

A hangar shot is lovely, but of course you cannot really see the sweater as it is meant to be worn.   Enter the sucky selfie.  The mirror situation and the photography situation are issues not addressed in 2021 which must be addressed in 2022. 

 

I also finished the third square on the alpaca blanket project. There is still a long way to go: the blanket is probably about baby-blanket size at the moment, just right as a small lap blanket on a chilly evening. It looks perfectly at home on the purple sofa, where it can rest happily until 2022.

And I have resumed work on the Stephen West Mystery KAL shawl, which is, of course, no longer a mystery.  

I am on clue3, beginning with the brioche section.  I knit something in brioche years and years ago, perhaps when a book on the subject came out, and was not thrilled.  This time however I am finding it all grand fun.  I have dreams of finishing before the end of the year even though I acknowledge that this is not likely given holiday obligations, time with family obligations and scheduled travel.  No complaints about any of that, but the challenge is on.

Warmth and Dreams

I am apparently not really a multi-focused knitter even though I have two projects on the needles at the moment and another that is not yet finished.  I can blame this, at least partially,  on the fickleness of the knitter's mind, but this would not really be accurate.  The simple truth is that on any given day the mind, the heart, the body even, are geared in a particular direction, and this knitter must go with the flow.

In terms of the Stephen West shawl, I am ready to begin clue 3, the brioche section, but the truth is that there were several evenings when I was simply too exhausted for anything more complicated than simple garter stitch.  And so the blanket has been progressing and the shawl languishing.  

 

I am in no rush to finish the blanket; I knew that this would be a long-term project.  Even on large needles, a queen-sized blanket is an endeavor.  At the moment however, I am fascinated with blanket knitting and the colors of this blanket.  I can commit to the idea that I will not start the fourth block before picking up the shawl again.  Perhaps that will be the state of blanket progress, one block at a time.  Ten blocks or sections, ten sessions of blanket knitting, each probably longer than the previous, as the size of the blocks seems to grow with the size of the blanket.  

 

Last night I was actually alert and focused enough to begin the shawl, but I wanted to knit the blanket. Garter stitch felt like a reward for a day well-done, a soothing path at the end of a busy day in the midst of a busy time of year.  I have intentionally spent the last several years pulling back from holiday madness, even more so this year, yet my attention remains pulled in many directions.  This is also partially because I am still in the process of rebuilding energy, as well as repairing and rebuilding the underlying structure of routines that make life flow smoothly, especially in times of increased distraction and stress, but which partially collapsed during my cancer treatment.  The process of rebuilding is always exhausting, hence the need for structures and maintenance in the first place, but only a fool would believe she could build a structure that could completely block chaos from entering her life.

 

Hence also the need for Advent.  Advent is a time for reflection, and the need for reflection in the midst of social gaiety seems particularly apt this year. For this knitter, garter stitch provides a meditative process, an invitation to reflection, that suits this particular moment.

 

 

In terms of other distractions, Aimée Gille's book Worsted has arrived and is residing with my knitting on the sofa in the television room.  When I feel restless, or my fingers need a break, I pick it up and peruse the pages.  I could happily knit and wear every single project in this book with few modifications, with the exception of fitting issues, and that is a rare thing in my experience.  At the moment it is all stuff of dreams, reminding me of my younger self:  poring over the Sears Christmas Book as a child while dreaming up whole worlds and lives with each page of merchandise.  So too these sweaters.  

 

I am not about to abandon my current projects, and quite frankly, as I sit, the blanket square now large enough to just barely cover my lap with my feet tucked under me, I look forward to the day that I snuggle under a beautiful warm blanket made all the more beautiful because I knit it myself, just as I look forward to a warm woolen shawl wrapped around my shoulders on a chill evening, and I imagine all the things I could still knit: from sweaters to shawls, to linen tanks and tea towels.

 

Tis the season of hope and dreams.

A Blanket Project

I finished the "swatch" for the blanket project, so denoted because it was in truth the first square of a modular blanket.  The resulting size was 18" x 18", just about right for the project I had in mind.  I am happy with the resulting fabric and the plans for the blanket using this yarn at this gauge.

 

You might remember this photo from my last post.  Yes, I am repeating.

 

Yarn:  Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande

Needle Size: 10 1/2 US

Gauge:  12.5 stitches and 23 rows equals 4" in garter stitch.

 

After the swatch was finished, measured and I did the requisite calculations concerning if and how this would work out for my chosen plan, I spent part of Sunday doing the math.  I am using the design form Mason Dixon Knitting (book) for a blanket called Moderne Log Cabin Blanket.  But that blanket is knit in a lighter weight wool and the final blanket is smaller.  I wanted a blanket out of this particular wool.  I wanted this blanket to be between 25% to 33% larger than the initial pattern.  Both of these criteria were satisfied and I am looking forward to both the knitting and the final blanket.

 

This will be a blanket of some weight, but not quite as heavy as a wool blanket knit at the same gauge.  In fact, although a light airy blanket can be a treat, I also like a bit of weight in a blanket, along with the accompanying feeling of being grounded and snuggled in that comes from being wrapped in wool or alpaca. I love the warm loft and lightness of down, but I also love the comfort and security of blankets.  Maybe the only reason I like winter is that I love being wrapped up in wooly things.

 

All the requisite calculations have been made although you don't see them in the photo above.  Let the knitting begin.  Or continue as the case may be.  I am still working on the Westknits shawl where progress has been slow, mostly because I have been distracted with other tasks.  I should finish the second section up this week and begin on part three.   Working on two projects, at two radically different gauges, should actually better on my hands as each project allows some rest and recalibration between various joint and nerve issues.  Or not.  We will see.

 

 

Pillow Power

(This post was originally posted on Thursday 2/11/21 and severely revised on Friday 2/12/21)

 

I sometimes wonder why I even bothered writing a post last week.  Sometimes I wonder why I bother at all.  It is only February and I am failing in my goal of writing a post a week.  I should not push myself to write when I feel tired, frazzled, stressed, and petulant, however, which means I must also accept that there will be times when intention goes out the window.

 

But the Autumn Vine Pillow is finally finished.  I picked up the pillow insert, and yes I still hate that term, even as I understand the necessity.  After I put the knitted cover on the pillow, I added the buttons.  I am tickled that I had five buttons that were just the right size and right shade of blue.

I probably should have reinforced the button band, (you can see it pulling slightly here) but I was thinking this would be a decorative pillow in a place where it would get little tough use. I may have been mistaken in that assumption.  But at the moment I will leave it as is and simply accept that reinforcement may be necessary.

Here is the cushion on the library sofa.  It looks good there now, and although I have mixed feelings about having all three pillows from Rowan's Seasonal palette AW 19 (seen below) on that sofa, since I have not yet knitted the other two, perhaps it can live here for now.  

 

Admittedly, on Thursday I posted on Instagram that this pillow would not stay on the sofa but move to the bed, which was always an alternate position.  Neither is ideal.  Perhaps I shall present the case for each.

 

Sofa: I love the way the pillow looks on the sofa.  It is soft and comfortable and squishy enough for a nap, as Poncho and I often take a nap on that sofa.  However Poncho also tosses the pillows off the sofa multiple times a day, and since I don't use an extra pillow when sitting and knitting, the sofa can get crowded.  Yesterday I was feeling very petulant about constantly having to pick cushions up off the floor, but realistically I was primarily petulant because I've been struggling with two weeks of internet and equipment woes, and pretty much anything could push me over the edge.

Bed:  Above is Autumn Vine on the bed with a pillow covered in Colinette Point 5 and a needlepoint pillow.  The colors here are good together, and they tie the bed more closely to the rug, which is darker than the bed.  On the other hand they are a tad small, if I want to curl up on the bed with pillows to read a book or take a nap.  Yes I do that, although not so much at the moment, mostly because I nap with Poncho on the sofa.  My bed is very high and Poncho is both blind and willing to leap off anything.  I am worried that he would try to jump off the bed.

The pillows that were on the bed previously were larger, which was useful when I was feeling a bit under the weather sinus-wise.  They don't really work with the decor of the room, they were just left-over from a previous house.  Although I loved the fringed pillow in that house, I don't like it here at all.  

 

I suppose what this is telling me is that I really need to spend some time actually thinking about pillows, rather than just holding on the flotsam and jetsam of previous lives and hoping that it will all work together.

 

Let there Be Blankets, Part One

The first of the two camel/alpaca/merino blankets is finished!    I feel like I should be dancing happily around the house, and in my head and heart so I am.  In reality however, I am curled up in delicious warmth underneath this first blanket because I had forgotten how light and fluffy and delicious it is, how warm and yet never hot, like a cozy hug.

The finished blanket is roughly 5' x 7', a little small for use on a queen sized bed for more than one person, a little large as a throw.  I say roughly because there are a few minor issues.  It is not perfectly rectangular because some of the individual pieces were not perfectly rectangular.  

 

Apparently, when I knit this, I was not particularly meticulous and made many errors.  This is not surprising as I knit it in a mad rush and I have never been a person who puts things off to the last minute nor a person who works well when backed up to a deadline. I can and will pull through when a deadline looms, but I never manage by best work.  I am more of the slow and plodding type.  I am also the annoyingly organized type who usually sees a deadline and automatically counts backward to figure out how best to utilize my time so that I do not end up working in a mad panic as a deadline comes near.  This is how I got through college carrying the maximum allowable class load and never pulling an all-nighter while still volunteering and having a social life.  It is pretty much the way I still function, except that every now and then a wild thought messes up the works.  That was what happened with the original blanket.  I bought the yarn in mid November and thought I could knit a light and fluffy blanket as a surprise Christmas gift for George, a California-King sized blanket, no less.  Ahh foolishness!

 

Still, as much as I am proud, stubborn, and egotistical, as much as I do not like being reminded of my failings -- who does? -- I also wanted this blanket to be salvaged into something I would actually use.  Putting the blanket back together therefore became an exercise in making do.  Overall, my efforts paid off.  This is not a blanket that will be perfect on display, but it is a blanket to be used.

Assembly because an exercise in compromise.  Luckily the yarn I chose, Plymouth's Baby Alpaca Grande, and the stitches I chose worked well.  I knitted the squares together using a three-needle bind off, done backward, or inside-out, finished with the wrong-sides together so that the decorative seaming ridge would be visible on the outside face of the blanket.   The gray of the baby alpaca grande is not the same as the gray of the blanket itself, but it works well in this use.

For the  border I used a four-stitch knitted on i-cord, which I ended up adoring.  I even loved knitting it, and generally I find I-cord tedious to knit.  I felt like I was knitting a fluffy cloud.  I loved the soft loftiness, and the way the i-cord added structure without too much weight.

 

Will I keep the blanket forever? Who knows.  I still have to assemble the second blanket.  Before that can happen I need to order more yarn.  I had guessed that the seaming and the border would take 3 100-gram skeins.  I actually used 244 grams.  If you think this means I only need two more skeins to finish think again.  The number of pieces and the layout of the second blanket is different, and there will be 20 inches of additional seaming involved.  That 20 inches of seam, using a three-needle bind-off, will take 11 grams of yarn, 5 more grams than I have available, so three skeins it is.  It will work out, because the baby alpaca can be used with the assorted odd bits of leftover blanket yarn to make a scarf or shawl or something.

For now, this the lightest and warmest blanket I own.  Soon I will have two.  Someday I might have something that rivals this that I like better, but for now I am content and there is no urgent need that must be filled.