Hi Fellow Knitters,
It is less than a month to Christmas. Ferg and I are very busy doing a myriad of jobs and I guess you are too. Somehow the mantra "It will be finished before Christmas," spurs one on to try to fit in more activities than it is humanly possible. Something has to give, and with me it has to be knitting. Well that is my way of saying I haven't progressed my latest rug as much as I would have liked. However I have worked out all the details for the pattern I am calling Almost Log Cabin.
In my previous blog post I intimated that I wasn't sure about the proportions of the blocks. I have now increased the grey areas. They are now the same width as the red/yellow areas. This is how true Log Cabin patterns work. However I am not working a true Log Cabin with the lengths of the "logs". My logs are all the same length, whereas in true Log Cabin patterns the logs get longer and longer.I used 8 ply yarn and 5mm needles.
2. Keeping 17 moss stitches alive add 17 grey stitches to the same needle. Work 14 ridges of grey garter stitch, ending at left edge of work with the right side facing, and keeping the grey yarn live.
3. Pick-up / create 17 stitches along the edge of the grey area, then 17 stitches along edge of the red/yellow area. Work 14 ridges of garter stitch ending at left edge of work with the right side facing, and keeping the grey yarn live.
4.Repeat step 3.
5. Pick up/create 17 stitches into grey area, then 17 stitches along edge of the red/yellow area. Join to area 2. (See details below.)
I tried about 8 different ways to make this join look similar to the other joins - smooth and flat without a ridge. Of course it ended up to be very simple.
Joining to area 2: Knit all 34 stitches. Pick up one strand from edge of area 2. Insert knitting needle below an edge strand then pick it up, thereby putting the new stitch on the needle with the knitted stitches. Slip last knitted stitch over the picked up edge stitch. Turn and continue with the next row.
Before working the joins I used 15 small plastic stitch marker pins to isolate the 15 strands of yarn to be picked up. This made it easier as my 5mm needles have rather rounded points.
 
The next step will be to decide how to join all the blocks. Presently I am thinking I will use a dark smokey grey yarn and the three needle join up method. In the photo above the blocks are not joined.
What have you organised as your Christmas Holiday project? I had been thinking that I would need a new project to take away with me over the Christmas holiday period but now the Almost Log Cabin Blanket will keep me busy well into the new year.
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