Storey’s fiber arts editor knits a record of the days leading up to her grandson’s arrival.![]() |
Photo by Gwen Steege |
The logistics were simple, all outlined in Lea’s book in a section called “A Bundle of Joy.” I gathered a basketful of lightweight yarns in the colors I thought I’d need to knit the sky in all of its variability where I live: several shades of blue, grays, and even whites. I often held two strands of different-colored laceweight yarns together as I knit, to create even more shades.
Lea leaves the choice of stitch up to the individual knitter and, though I could have just knit garter stitch, I knew I’d get bored doing that. Instead, I decided to knit my way through Barbara Walker’s A Treasury of Knitting Patterns, working a 3-inch square every day. So that I wouldn’t have to stitch dozens of squares together when the blanket was finished, I knit 13 strips of 15 squares each, and blocked and attached each strip as soon as I completed it. The result is a somewhat funky, patchwork quilt sampler with completely random colors: sometimes I’d have 4 or 5 gray days in a row, and in other columns, there are long stretches of blue. I especially loved the days when bright white, puffy cumulus clouds in a deep blue sky inspired me to work 2-color stitch patterns, or throw in a square with a little intarsia-knit whale or sheep.
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A section of Gwen’s finished blanket. Photo by Mars Vilaubi |
Gwen W. Steege edits books on knitting and other fiber crafts for Storey Publishing. She lives in western Massachusetts.
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