the blue blog archives: circle of friends

This weekend I had the great pleasure of presenting fellow Knitsmith, Johanna, with a "Circle of Friends" baby blanket (from Last Minute Knitted Gifts), knit for her by about 15 of her knitter friends. It was so amazing to be a part of this project!

It all started out with Dani and I picking out the yarn (Manos Cotton Stria) in the bestest, brightest girl colors ever. (We waited until right after Johanna found out the sex of the baby to get started with the planning!) We made up kits for each of the seven strips with instructions and just the right amount of yarn and sent them out to everyone. It was so exciting to hear that one knitter was done and sending the kit on to another and then to start receiving the finished strips back from everyone.

After about two months (so not so "last minute" actually!), I had all the strips and was able to finally lay them out and see how the entire blanket was going to look. Despite problems with 15 knitters each trying to get the same gauge and cotton being the stretchy fiber that it is, it looked awesome! Something about how those colors line up on the diagonal really catches the eye and keeps you from noticing any irregularities caused by having had 15 different sets of hands work on the thing.

Johanna likes it - hooray! And here's the blanket with baby tadpole. It's the perfect size!

I would definitely recommend this project to any group of friends (or single friend) wanting to make a gift for someone. It was super easy to knit (garter stitch strips with color changes to create the look of squares) and easy to seam (mattress stitch, whipstitch - I think this thing would look good no matter how you seamed it!). It's great for a big group of knitters even if they don't all have the same skill level or get the exact same gauge, and it's a breeze for the few seamers at the end, since seaming strips is way better than seaming individual squares. It ain't exactly last minute, but it is a really special knitted gift. Here's hoping tadpole agrees!

posted by alison at 9:03 am | in LMKG , baby news

Comments

WOW, that's gorgeous!

Posted by: yuvee at November 13, 2006 9:10 AM

ooh, it came together so nicely. sorry i couldn't see it in person but the photos are very beautiful. thanks for having me be a part of it.

Posted by: shireen at November 13, 2006 9:43 AM

That blanket looks amazing. I've seamed garter strips before, though, and mine didn't look nearly as nice as that. Did you use mattress or whipstitch?

What a thoughtful bunch of friends you are!

Posted by: otismurph at November 13, 2006 10:22 AM

That is lovely! Johanna is lucky to have such good friends :)

Posted by: Julie at November 13, 2006 10:50 AM

Otismurph, I used mattress stitch for garter stitch edges, or what some people call an invisble seam for garter stitch edges. Theresa describes it very well in this Knitty article from a couple of years ago.

Posted by: alison at November 13, 2006 10:55 AM

this is one gorgeous blanket. great job.

Posted by: tonya at November 13, 2006 11:15 AM

Great, it is a quilting pattern but such a great adaption. I love it and so will the baby.

Posted by: Lynette at November 13, 2006 11:39 AM

it looks fabulous! Great color choice and what a lucky tadpole to have some many aunties keeping her draped with the handknits.

Posted by: Juls at November 13, 2006 11:48 AM

That's a beautiful piece of work, and a wonderful idea of doing the strips.

Posted by: Kristin at November 13, 2006 12:23 PM

I'm SO GLAD it worked out so well! Thank you for including me!!! LOVE IT!

Posted by: Cara at November 13, 2006 12:39 PM

The blanket is gorgeous! Awww!! How fun =)

Posted by: Brandie at November 13, 2006 12:56 PM

those colours are great!

Posted by: Sarah at November 13, 2006 1:11 PM

What a great idea!!!

Posted by: kimberly at November 13, 2006 1:55 PM

That's the best CoF blanket I've seen. Love the colors!

Posted by: katie at November 13, 2006 2:06 PM

oh man. you are such fab friends. that is really gorgeous. I love it!!!

Posted by: Orli at November 13, 2006 2:23 PM

That blanket looks great!

Posted by: Jessica at November 13, 2006 2:26 PM

Oh that blanket is the best! I have some blanket squares knit up by some girls in China for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, the blanket will go to the Earl family who we will be hopefully moving to a house in Feb.! This 'group' blanket has been quite a blessing for me. I know that beautiful baby blanket is as well!
Denise
www.purlsofhope.com

Posted by: Denise at November 13, 2006 2:50 PM

You did a great job putting together the actual blanket and the project.

Posted by: Lauren at November 13, 2006 2:58 PM

That looks great!

Posted by: Beth at November 13, 2006 3:48 PM

Oh, what a lovely and thoughtful gift! It's beautiful...

Posted by: reluctantmango at November 13, 2006 4:09 PM

We ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! Thank you Alison for coordinating and seaming this fabulous blanket. Thanks to everyone who was involved! I can't wait for Tadpole to get here so that she can be wrapped up in all of the cotton stria-y love! You guys are amazing!

Posted by: Johanna (and Tadpole) at November 13, 2006 4:20 PM

Man, that sure did turn out cute! Kudos on the colors. Did the back look as cute as the front? I'm thinking about having one on hand just for the next baby that makes an appearance. Looks like a fairly good travel project.

Posted by: Laurie at November 13, 2006 6:14 PM

The colors are great. Really catch the eye with the diagonals. :)

Posted by: Lynn at November 13, 2006 8:21 PM

Wow! That looks phenomenal.What a priceless gift.

Posted by: Miss Scarlett at November 14, 2006 1:19 AM

So, so beautiful!

~firefly

Posted by: firefly8868 at November 14, 2006 7:48 AM

Wow. FIFTEEN PEOPLE?!? We did ours with only three, and it was an absolute nightmare making sure everyone knit their strips in time (it's entirely possible we had another knitter involved who didn't knit a thing and so some of us had to pick up the slack, but I ain't pointing fingers). I'm super impressed you managed to keep that many knitters on schedule! The cotton Stria looks great. We used Knitpicks Mainline which was nice to work with, but I wish we had better colors to choose from.

Posted by: Heather at November 14, 2006 8:17 AM

OMG, Heather, yours looks beautiful! The stitch definition is so nice in that Knitpicks yarn. And the colors you used are really cool!

Posted by: alison at November 14, 2006 9:10 AM

A Piece of Vermont just posted some superwash boot sock yarn:
http://whathousework.typepad.com/what_housework/2006/11/slow_and_steady.html

Posted by: Kim at November 14, 2006 3:26 PM

Thanks for the link to the Knitty seaming article! I find that I read the technique articles when they come out, think, "ooh, I should bookmark that!" and then promptly forget all about them. So thanks for the reminder!

Posted by: otismurph at November 14, 2006 7:46 PM

That color choice is beautiful. They work so well together.

Posted by: nik at November 14, 2006 9:49 PM

I just love the blanket its gorgeous!
Hugs Eve

Posted by: eve at November 16, 2006 2:57 AM

So adorable! Hey, checkout the embellished vintage childrens clothes by Mattie & Me. I think it will be right up your alley.

Posted by: Embroidered baby clothes at November 18, 2006 12:36 AM