Evelyn's No-Sew Blankie (ENSB) made its debut this month in the
Spring+Summer issue of Knitty. It's a quick and easy knit and is perfect for a handspun yarn or a commercial yarn like
Lisa Souza's Superwash Merino. The garter stitch mitered squares show off variegated colorways beautifully.
ENSB in handspun
ENSB in Lisa Souza's Superwash Merino
Free knitting pattern
The origin of ENSB goes back to last summer and a hot pour dyeing project. At the time I was focused on process. I liked the colors in the pot.
Hot pour dyeingBut the resulting bumps were not what I expected. Ahhh, the surprises of the dye pot. At times they're genius and other times, well, they're just surprises. Either way they're always learning experiences.
Anyway, I wasn't sure what to do with the bumps... normally I spin 4 oz and make socks, but maybe I could spin all 8 oz and 3-ply the whole lot to create randomness in the color combos. And maybe I could actually design something with my own handspun. What a novel idea!
Thank goodness for the 2010 Tour de Fleece, it helped me process a lot of fiber in a relatively short period of time.
Potluck - Cobbler singlesI didn't split the fiber before I spun it so the color runs were intentionally long. I wanted the 3-ply color combos to change very slowly throughout the yarn, and that's exactly what I achieved.
Potluck - Cobbler singlesFrom then on everything fell into place. I had a baby blanket pattern in mind for little Evelyn who was born last year and with just 8 oz of 3-ply it would need to be a car seat blanket. For inspiration, I looked to the Baby Surprise Jacket that I made for her. I loved how how the garter st showed off the yarn and how the double decreases made the garter ridges "turn the corner". Thank you EZ!
Evelyn's Pink Granite BSJMitered squares and garter st squares make up the body of the blanket and the center is worked in the round and the blanket is finished with an applied i-cord border.
ENSB in handspunAfter finishing the handspun blanket I searched for a commercially available yarn and
Lisa Souza's Superwash Merino turned out to be the just the ticket. She put a hank of Sunny Days in the mail as she headed out to Stitches Midwest and suggested that I swatch with it. I got started and before I knew it the swatch was finished. lol
Lexy: pensiveThat's my favorite photo. Isn't Lexy the cutest model ever?
Kristi kindly offered to take photos of the blankets with Lexy and they both did a fantastic job. Thank you so much for your patience and tenacity.
I'm very happy with how the pattern turned out and it's getting a good response on
Ravelry. There's even a
KAL that Ginny of
FatCatKnits has started. The photos of the blankies in handspun are making me want to knit another! If you're going to knit ENSB, consider
joining the KAL. One of the prizes is
a bump of fiber dyed by yours truly.
Last but not least, my handpainted superwash BFL is available in the
24x7 Fiber Shop. Potluck - Cobbler isn't a colorway I'm planning on repeating, but there are other (better) colorways available with more coming soon.
At The Tank SOLD!
7th Veil SOLD!
Emy-licious
Love Me Baby
Salad Days
Keep Me Tied UpLabels: 24x7 Fiber, dyeing, ENSB, fiber, Knitty, Lisa Souza, pattern, spinning, wool
