This project started about 6 or 7 years ago. I had waaaaay too many yarn scraps that were too small to make a whole project but too large to toss out. There were a few projects in the frog pond to be reused and I also had some handspun minis that weren't really my cup of tea for mittens, or any other small projects I would have to wear afterwards.
I had previously tried out one of the vintage weavette loomes and really loved how easy it was to use and the fact that the squares came off the loom completely finished. No ends to weave in, no warp ends to deal with. My kind of project!
I tried getting one of those looms for the longest time. Something always came up, or I had other projects and forgot about the yarn sitting in my closet, taking up space. So my intermitten search for the looms (and of course I wanted vintage, not new) took about 4 or 5 years.
Finally my friend and fellow artist Jeanette Nielsen (@studioodd on instagram) sent me a set in a trade. A one inch and a four inch loom. ❤
That was March 2019.
I steadily made squares, one or two a night.
Then deadline projects took over for a while and the blanket squares went on the back burner again.
Last year I had enough of shuffling the finished squares and the leftover yarn from one place to another and started a push to get the squares finished. Lo and behold, I did it. I even sewed them together right after they were all done, found fabric for the backing AND safety pin basted the whole thing in one fell swoop.
I decided ona gradient layout for my squares. So the blanket goes from colourful in the left top corner to gey/black squares in the bottom right.
That was October 2019.
And then it all came to a crashing halt.
How to sew the backing to the front?
At first I was going to simply quilt them together in the ditch, like a normal quilt. But my machines weren't doing it and somehow I could not get a straight seam by hand, try as I might.
I put too much work in the squares, to have the overall effect ruined by shotty seams.
Fast forward about another year of moving the pinned blanket from couch to chair and back again. The accidental poke of safety pins that would come undone was getting on my nerves. Plus, the pinned blanket really did nothing for the room... (I may have a somewhat eccentric decorating style, and my definition of "home decor" is definitely unconventional to say the least, but I do draw the line somewhere...)
So two days ago I bit the bullet and decided to tie the blanket as one would a quilt, instead of sewing it.
I found some embroidery floss in a colour that matched the backing, cut it to size and went to work.
I always thought tying a quilt is a nice, low stress way to get around actually quilting them and had plans to make a big tied quilt one day.
Well those plans went out the window. I HATE tying a quilt. The constant flipping and tying knots and cutting ends and worrying that even though I basted the heck out of all the layers something will shift....
Never again. (I think.😉)
Nevertheless it got done, I finished off the edges by simply turning the fabric under and handsewing the edge.
Wonder how long it will take for me to decide if I want and edging on this, and then what kind of edging I want...
I am a libra. Get used to it! 😂😂😂
A few people asked for a tutorial on how I made this blanket. I am working on that and it should come out around October, possibly. But if you can't wait that long.
● Basically make the squares, as many as you need to get the size blanket you want.
● Sew all the squares together (I will write in the tutorial how I did mine, but whatever works for you)
● Find a backing fabric that you like and/or matches the front. The fabric has to be 1 inch larger than the finished front all the way around
● Baste the backing to the front
● Tie the front to the backing as you would a quilt.
● Finish the edging by simply folding the fabric under and seaming it to the top, or add a binding, if you like. If you don't add a binding you can add a crochet on edging to the blanket when it is finished.
Presto! 🧙♀
