The Nick of Time

In the nick of time I finished the last swirl. Baby Finn was born last week and I am happy to report that the swirl blanket is currently being blocked into submission. I have never been a big fan of blocking, partially because I don’t knit a lot of lace but it also always seems like an extra step that I can skip. Well I am here to report that this project might make me a convert. The blocking has done so much for this blanket: 1) it increased the size thus decreasing my need to knit more swirls; 2) it opened up the pattern so you can really see how lovely the swirls are; 3) it helps hide the heptagon in the middle.

What’s that you say? You have forgotten your geometry, don’t fret clearly so have I. Each swirl is actually a hexagon with 60 stitches- 10 stitches per side. Each swirl except one that is, yup smack in the middle of everything is one seven sided monster that made the count come out all weird. As I was nearing the end of this blanket I couldn’t figure out why it was so hard to make it an even shape, so my guy and I laid it out to have a good look. There in the center mocking me was the heptagon (mind you I only know that a seven sided object is called a heptagon because my guy was a total math geek way back when). A friend’s husband tried to convince me to cut it open and fix it. Amazingly he is still alive, unharmed even. And I am chalking the heptagon up to the beauty of imperfection…rest assured it has plenty of company in the rest of the blanket.

For those not convinced of blocking consider this photo.

I had to block the blanket in two parts (cause it was big and I was planning on using my bed to sleep). The top half of the blanket has been blocked, the bottom hasn’t. Cool huh?