WIP Wednesday - The Smell of Wool

Today's feature combines my love of knitting and quilting, along with my blog identity, quite well!

I'm making a lovely wool blanket.

Down in Arizona, my Aunt Carol gave me four bags of machine-knit wool/nylon fabric, including ribbed bands, that she had bought intending to make sweaters.  For several reasons (I don't have a serger, I don't particularly like cut-and-sew sweaters because I'd rather handknit them, the color was not what I wanted for a sweater, etc...) these were not going to become sweaters.  But taken as raw material, I thought they would make excellent blankets or throws.  So I threw them in the front-loader for a few cycles.  Two of the packages felted, two did not.  I decided to plunge in and make a blanket with the wool that felted.  (I will still make a blanket with the wool that didn't felt, but will use different techniques and probably line it with a sheet... stay tuned).

I wish I could share with you over the internet the exquisite smell of this wool.  The cats like it.  I love it.  It's next best thing to having a pet sheep.  I will just bury my nose in the felted fabric as I'm sewing and sniff.  So now the blanket is almost complete.  It's hard to see above, but I cut off the ribbing bands, cut the edges straight, butted them up against each other, and used what I think is called a faggoting stitch to join them.  There were two extra long (originally circular knit) lengths, and two not quite half that length, and I made up the difference by putting a bit of the ribbing in the middle of the center panel. 

Then I am working on using almost every scrap by adding the other lengths of ribbing along the top and bottom, and one side.  Then I'll probably use a machine overlock stitch to go all the way around the border, whether in gray or in contrasting color I haven't decided yet.  It's about 72x78", good for an extra blanket on a cold night or just sniffing the lovely wool while watching TV on the couch.

I have made very little progress on either the socks or the auction quilt since posting these pictures.  Yikes.  I am reading a lovely book called Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw.  Set in ancient Egypt, it's a blend of romance, historical fiction, and spy adventure.  Wish I had had this to read when I was in the young adult market.  However, I need to finish reading it quickly because it is wanted back at the library, as of Monday.  Yikes again.