Amateur Amalgam

I thought I would start us off by talking about a project that I’ve actually managed to complete! (A rare accomplishment since I get bored or enamoured with something else halfway through). This one is a kit that I got a few years ago, and I worked on it on and off (mostly off tbh) for about 2 years. I finished it in December of 2021. It’s not exactly perfect, but I’m still very proud of it. It ended up being both larger and warmer than I expected it to be, and I use it all the time.

It’s part of a pattern and kit that I got from knitpicks.com called the Hue Shift Afghan. The colours are meant to bleed into each other in a grid pattern, hence the name, and there are a few different colourways available. The one I picked out is the ‘Jewel tone’ one, because I thought it was the prettiest 🥰.

As you can see, the corner I started with is tighter than the rest of the blanket, so it looks scrunched up when its just sitting there, but the stitch provides a good bit of elasticity so if I pulled on it the shape would even out. You honestly can’t tell without specifically looking for it so I’m gonna count it as a win.

When I was working on this, I worked on it everywhere; at work, at home, in the car, in the bus. It’s worked in squares then you attach them to each other, when you finish a big corner you work on the next one. You can either attach them as you go or at the end, which is what I did. Once all the colours are put together and the corner squares are all stitched up, you can add the black border around the outside. I deviated from the pattern a little when I did the border but you can’t actually tell so its fine.

Everyone who saw me working on it became invested in it with me, and it was really fun. I would get questions from my co-workers and family asking for updates on my progress and they were all really excited when I did manage to finish and show them the final product.

I think this is the moment where I had decided I would get back into making things again, because before this I had stopped for about 10 years and just done nothing. But now I want to get back to making things again, and I have the time to do so now, so why not?