{mini-rant} RUTGERS, the State University of NEW JERSEY, is now 9-0. The State University of NEW JERSEY. Why do the people of NEW YORK CITY feel the need to co-opt it as their own? They lit the Empire State Building in Rutgers scarlet last night. Please don’t get me started on this. GET YOUR OWN DAMN SPORTS TEAMS! Oh that’s right. You’ve got two that play right here – 2 miles from my house – IN NEW JERSEY!! How can the people of NYC stand themselves that they ALLOW the Giants and the Jets to play in NEW JERSEY. Both teams have signed big agreements basically promising they won’t be leaving NEW JERSEY anytime soon. You know what? I say play on suckas! Guess who gets all the tax revenues from your OUT OF STATE football teams? That’s right. New Joisey. {mini-rant over}

Okay. Sorry about that. That’s two days in a row that I’ve ranted, but it feels good to let it out. On to knits.

Here’s how the new project is going to go.
Take a hundred of these:

And put them together to make 25 of these:

And then keep putting them together and putting them together

and they tell two friends and they tell two friends and so on and so on and so on….

The goal is 100 little squares making up 25 large squares. That’s the goal. The little squares are 6″x6″ and the larger squares are 12″x12″ and I’m hoping this will be big enough to fit on my bed. I see this is a VERY long term project. Very long term. So don’t ask about it. 😉 First off, the yarn colors you see above are not the yarn colors I’ll be using. But I am thinking of making a mini-template using the colors above and maybe a couple more that’s at least 4 large squares big. You know – to work out all the kinks. Before you even ask – I’m knitting garter stitch on size 5 needles. The yarn is Socks That Rock Heavyweight in the following colors: Brick (red), Terra (orange), Spinel (blue) and Olivenite (yellow.) As always, if the colors aren’t on the website, you can email or call Blue Moon to inquire about their availability. Thank you.

First off, I’ve got figure out how to get the squares together. The green blanket was super easy to seam because most of the edges were bound off – this time I’m working with garter stitch edges. I’m going to have to check the books on this one. I think I’ve got the diagonal square down to where I want it: basically knit into the back and front loop of your slip knot – two stitches. Knit next row. Knit into the back and front of both stitches. Now you have four. Knit next row. Now you K1, M1, K2, M1, K1. Knit next row. Continue increasing every other row until you have 50 stitches on the needle. Next row, K1, SSK, K44, K2TOG, K1. Continue decrease rows every other row until you have 30 stitches on the needle. Switch to contrast color and continue decreasing until you have four stitches left. SSK and then K2TOG. Next row knit. K2TOG and draw yarn through remaining stitch.

That’s what I’m most happy with right at this moment. Subject to change, of course, once the seaming is done. I was trying to go for true corners.

I won’t be starting the REAL afghan for a while. First, I have to collect the yarn. I’m in talks with my favorite dyer as to what colors are available in what I want to do. The colors I’m keeping as a surprise. I can’t give up everything, can I? My biggest concern right now is how to put it all together. Question for you quilters – what do you do? Collect fabrics – then do one large square at a time – or do you go along making small squares with whatever fabrics speak to you and then put them together at the end? I mean I’m assuming you would have a color theme or something – but what a task! Color is the most important and hardest part of all of this I think. The wrong color can kill the whole piece. (And before you quilters tell me I could do this in 1/100th of the time it will take me to knit it – I don’t quilt. Apparently it has a lot to do with ironing and I don’t iron. I knit. Not that there’s anything wrong with ironing….)

Whew! So that’s where my head is at. I also ripped back the Casino shawl and I’m going to start it over again on 6s. I, thankfully, didn’t lose the cast on when I ripped back, so everything’s good in that respect. Heather was the one that tipped me over the edge: in the comments the other day she said that on 6s you can always block it out but on 7s – if its too big, it’s too big. Thanks Heather! It all became clear after I read your comment.

It’s back to work for me – I’m doing pretty well getting things done. But before I go, I leave you with a bit of eye candy. The squares and the quilt that took me over the moon!

Not the weather kind, although it’s really kind of fascinating that Tuesday was pretty nice and today is beautiful and in between we got LITERALLY over 4″ of rain. I had to go back and forth to the store yesterday and every time I went out my town flooded more and more and streets were closed all over the place. Oh and to the fucker in the behemoth SUV literally sitting on my ass: it was one fucking lane and I had ten people in front of me. Where did you think I was going to be able to go? I hope you don’t drive like that when your kids are in the car. Fucker.

Ahem.

I’m talking about the creativity kind. The stuff that hits you and knocks you off your feet and when you finally stand up everything is so crystal clear but just a little too far out of reach and you start running and running in your mind and you breathe a little faster with all the running but it feels so so good. You know what I mean?

I think Nona was right when she said in the comments yesterday that I might be missing my green blanket. I really miss my green blanket. So much so that last night instead of continuing on with my Pomatomus sock or my knee highs or making decisions about Casino, I got into bed – my new favorite place with my glorious new down comforter and duvet and gorgeous purple sheets – and pulled in Nancy Crow with me. I want to start a new blanket. The Palette one isn’t doing it for me – something about the color combinations – and the Random one. Well, I love it, but frankly it’s unwieldy at this point and it takes A LOT to finish a row or section and I’m not in a zen enough place to just knit and knit and knit. I want squares. Squares are extremely satisfying. You finish one and it’s like LOOK! I finished something! Even if it’s just a part of something, but still. It’s a finish. And then you can move onto the next one that’s different. Easy to not get bored that way. And, fresh off my seaming success, I’m all into the seaming of the squares.

So I’m in bed with Nancy and I’m flipping through the pages delighting in her color-eye – because really that’s what it’s all about isn’t it? – and I come to p55 and I stop dead in my tracks. THIS. IS. IT. This is it. This IS it. This is my next blanket. It’s going to be big and intricate and I’m going to have to use a lot of colors and it will be subtle and beautiful and I can see it already finished in my mind laid out on my bed when I come into the room at night or I make the bed in the morning and I linger with it. I touch it and smell it and admire it and I think I MADE THIS. THIS IS ME. And oh my god it was all I could do to get to sleep last night I was so excited. I immediately cast on for the start of a square and knit until it was time to go to sleep, ie, my fingers stopped working even though I had knit the whole blanket in my mind.

This project is so far from even being started and I think that’s what gets me crazy. The creativity is flowing fast and furious but there really isn’t an outlet for it. First off, the whole thing will be a collaboration because someone else will be dying the yarn for me and it will be my vision but it will be the dyers vision as well. You can completely understand why someone like Nancy dyes her own fabrics. It’s all about control of the final product. And how much do I talk about it? I can talk talk talk talk and then when it doesn’t work out or I get bored AGAIN or something else comes along – but whatever – these are my projects and I share them with you and ultimately I’m doing the knitting, so if I need to move along…. Ann mentioned to me yesterday, with almost a sigh (not a bad sigh just a sigh of an excellent friend who’s seen this enthusiasm before and may even get swept up herself but should she really get invested because she knows that in a week it will be all over – it’s like dealing with your best girlfriend in college and her mad love of the week) said that she guessed all my other projects would be taking a back seat. Well, yes, for now. That doesn’t mean that I don’t want to knit Am Kamin and that I won’t knit Am Kamin but I’m feeling really interested in THIS right THIS SECOND. Really that’s the beauty of my knitting – no deadlines – no obligations. Knits don’t really have feelings do they? God I hope not.

The best part of all of this? When I first mentioned the genius Nancy Crow on this knitting blog, I quoted her:

I think every artist who succeeds (in their own terms) has some ability to keep moving forward in the face of constant obstacles…emotional, mental, financial, physical…and that is what sets them apart from those who always talk about trying or starting but never get beyond the talking stage. I WANTED TO MOVE FORWARD, AND I WANTED TO FIND A WAY TO WORK MORE ABSTRACTLY.

Turns out, that quote? The one that affected me so much when I first went through the book? It’s opposite the quilt where lightning struck last night. Sometimes knits are just meant to be.