Antique Ab Fab
I seem to have a little thing about blankets and quilts lately. Right now, the only projects besides socks that seem to call my name are projects that involve creating a large warm covering for a human or a piece of furniture. My next project fits securely into this category.
I purchaseds this Ab Fab kit some time ago when they could still be purchased for a reasonable price from sellers in the UK. The idea was that it would be an afghan in the "Den of Great Manliness", a.k.a. the home theatre. So I let John consult on the color. Given that it's Colinette, his options were a little limited from his perspective because nothing was either muted or black and grey. So he selected Antique as being closest to the palette he liked. It has some greens, and purples and deep reds. Of course, at the time, I was mostly interested in getting a kit because I knew they would be almost impossible to get from the UK in the future, not because I meant to start it right away. But I needed another project to work on while watching TV and I'm trying very hard to knit out of my stash right now (this has a great deal to do with the fact that my fiber room is going to become the nursery and I'm not going to have quite as much dedicated stash space as I currently do, but in smaller part because I just feel like my stash has gotten to the point where I have more than sufficient yarn for big projects... there can never be too much sock yarn) and this project appealed to me because of all the different textures and yarns that are contained in it.
Part of the fun for me with a project like this is just winding the skeins into balls. This gave the big ol' ball winder quite a work out. The more I use it, the more I like it. I don't miss my little plastic Royal at all. Almost all of these balls would have been too big for my small winder to handle. After that, I got to put the colors into an order. The kit pattern just puts them in order by yarn type, but since there are three skeins of brushed mohair, and 2 of that schlubby boucle yarn, there's still a little room for personal preference (it also means that, should I want to make another of these, I can mix and match my own colors and still order directly from the UK).
It also meant that I came face to face with the fact that this project has a lot of mohair... and a brushed mohair yarn is not my favorite kind of yarn to use when the words "mindless knitting" are meant to be applied. But after John picked it up and said "Oooh, soft" after I had knit a few rows at the beginning, I'm going to hunker down and not complain too much. After all, if it's soft and it's warm it will get a lot of love from the husband, who can almost always be found under a blanket when he's in his Den.
And in the end, a big knitted blanket is all about sharing the warmth of a little knitty love.
I knit one of those for my best friend when he bought his first house a few years ago, just when I was almost finished we got into a conversation where he reminded me of his allergy to all animal fibres (I swear he had never told me this before), so I held onto it & reknit the pattern with exotic silks and cotton yarns I had found on trips and at my LYS's. It resides proudly in his livingroom, just as beautiful for having been made with entirely different yarns, it's a great stash buster.
I have been reading your blog lately and have come to admire you very much in your approach to life and it's inevitable challenges. Congratulations on the coming baby. It is definitely worth all the effort. "warm coverings" for all objects, human and otherwise sounds like you are right on track . . nesting! My hubby got a big charge out of me and my nesting efforts, especially during the second one who was born overseas. Nesting came with different challenges like dearth of fabric and yarn. Your quilt is beautiful and I have just used a smaller seam allowance to fit when faced with problem. Good stitching.
Wow, those colors are so beautiful. Peaceful, even. But manly enough for the Hubby Den. Well done!
"Oooh, soft" is just what I thought when I looked at that yarn. It should make a really snuggly blanket :)
I have one of those Ab Fab afghan kits somewhere I think. That's a bad sign isn't it? When you can't even remember what's in your stash that probably means it's way too big. Or the short term memory is starting to go. I can't remember now if I bought one or just kept thrashing about which colorway to get so got nothing. Well, either way I look forward to seeing your progress.
That afghan is going to be gorgeous. Snuggling up and sharing the love are some of the best bits in life.
I have long wanted one of the Colinette afghan kits, because I swoon at the incredible colors in the brushed mohair. It's one of my favorite things to just ponder when I need a yarn fix but can't carve time out of my day for knitting. Right now there's a few skeins draped in strategic locations around the house. Some day, I'll shell out the moolah for one of the kits, even if it'll cost an arm and a leg!
A knitter friend of mine at work just finished one of these buthasyettobringmeapicture! (She was reluctant to bring the actual blanket. I have no idea why. Probably the crazed look in my eye!) She worked on it for years and gave it to her housebound husband for his birthday because she knew he would appreciate all the hard work and love that went into it. A very sweet gesture, I thought!