The Good Wife and Super Easy Lap Blankets

Now, I know what you’re probably thinking. What on earth do lap blankets have to do with a good wife?

So let me start at the beginning. You may have noticed that I haven’t posted for about three months. As some of you may know, I’ve been busy with my new Stitch 56 website that got rebuilt from the foundation up. After a successful launch, with lots of very gratifying feedback, I fixed my attention on building the business. Building the number of people looking at my site, building the number of people Liking my Facebook page. Trying (but not succeeding very well) to build the number of followers of my Twitter tweets. Building the stock lines I’m carrying in the shop. And building the number of sales each week.

In the meantime, every evening, Moshe and I have been glued to the telly watching The Good Wife. We started at the beginning, the first episode of the first season. And we’re LOVING it!!! I mean hooked. Have you seen it? Did you you love it? Who’s your favourite? Kalinda? Peter? Diane? Will? Cary? Now, I know we’re kinda behind a little, like 4 seasons behind, but we’re just catching up as fast as we can. We’re somewhere in the middle of Season 3 I think, or maybe a smidge further.

Anyway, I hate to just sit and watch and do nothing. Truth is, if my hands are idle, my nails end up taking a beating. Or is that a biting? Yeah, not good. So I decided to invest in a little Manos del Uruguay Maxima from Purl Soho, one of my favourite stores, and knit up a Super Easy Lap Blanket.

It’s so soft! It has a gorgeous hand, not too heavy, not too light. Just right. A beautifully “cozy soft, decadently toasty, […..] kettle-dyed, hand-spun 100% extrafine merino wool”. And the range of colours is so phenomenal. I kinda went a little bit overboard though. I decided to make 4 of these blankets, so we each could have our own for those cool winter nights of TV viewing. Well I just kept buying more colours! You know how it is, I put together a row of 7 colours, stood back to look at the selection, moved them around a little, changed this one with that one, took one out, added one in. You know.

And just when I thought I had four x 7 rows all lined up in perfect harmony, I’d mess around with them one more time. Then check the website for a possible better colour to use here, or another colour palette for another blanket, and so it went. On and on. By the way, Purl Soho didn’t have all the colours in stock, so I spread the shopping love around at Flying Fingers Yarn, and Happy Knits, and I think I bought one skein from another shop that I can’t remember the name of. Just do a Google search and you’ll find what you need.

You won’t believe it, … then again, maybe you will, but I have another few colours on their way to me in the mail. I just needed them, you know? In case they’re the perfect match, better than the one I’d already settled on. For the fourth time.

Those are some of the colours that might make it into this second blanket. Well, probably they’ll make it in. Depends on what my new order delivers.

Here’s what I have left, after the first blanket.

And just so you can see all the wool in this full-to-the-brim plastic bag, here are some pics from both sides of the bag…

OK. It’s been a long but lovely day. Glad to have been able to show this to you. It’s not rocket science, this pattern. Just a nice feeling of accomplishment when it’s complete. Time for the next ep, and more knitting. Yay!

Moshe? Are you coming?

Oh, and I’ll post pics when this second one is done.
x Helene