Unfinished Project Profile: the Blue Blanket

If you read last week’s introductory post, you will have seen that my rules for crafting include a stipulation that, on any given day, I must knit at least two rows on the Blue Blanket before working on any other craft project.  That’s because the blue blanket, although a much beloved project, is becoming something of an Albatross.  

At about three years old, it’s been in the works for a while, but is nowhere near my oldest unfinished project. (I just recently finished assembling an afghan whose squares I started to crochet more than ten years ago.) 

At two layers, each 259 stitches wide and 622 rows long*, it may very well be my biggest unfinished project, but that's not the main reason why the blue blanket gets pride of place.

No, the reason why the blue blanket comes before all other projects is because it's for my nephew, and although I started it several months before he was born, I'm beginning to wonder whether he's going to get it before he goes off to college.

Well, actually, it's as much for my brother as for my nephew.  I have some doubts as to whether it will actually reach my nephew or be confiscated by his father.  You see, the blue blanket has a history...

Permit me to introduce myself...

Hello, and welcome to Things Made Slowly, a blog about doing things by hand, and taking the time to do them well.  I’m a thirty-something rare books librarian with a nasty habit of picking up new hobbies--mostly costuming and its associated crafts (sewing, embroidery, knitting, crochet, spinning, tablet weaving, etc.), with occasional forays into other areas such as pottery, woodworking, and odd culinary avenues.

What my stash looks like now: a mixture of old
Renaissance Faire costume bits, unfinished
projects, fabric, and other textile-related
tools and supplies.

Formerly based in Southern California, I was for several years a regular attendee at the San Bernardino/Santa Fe Dam, Ojai (now defunct), Long Beach (also defunct), and Escondido Renaissance festivals, Vista Viking Festival, Riverside Dickens Festival, Labyrinth of Jareth Masquerade, (Los Angeles) Edwardian Ball, and of course, Costume College.  Consequently, my crafting projects ranged from early medieval to late 19th century, with plenty of fantasy and gothic styles thrown in.  I made (too) frequent shopping expeditions to the L.A. garment district, amassed a tremendous fabric stash, and racked up a staggering number of unfinished projects.

In 2012, I moved from West Los Angeles to rural Scotland, near St Andrews.  In packing up my collection of fabric and unfinished projects for the move, I was appalled at how much *stuff* I had accumulated.