Unfinished Business: Chevron blanket

Whether they call them UFOs (UnFinished Objects) or not almost every knitter has at least one of these. A project started with the best intentions and then for whatever reason, they put it down. I’m pretty good about only starting one project at a time and forcing myself to finish before I start something else… with one exception, this blanket made by assembling knitted chevron strips.

When I started my current job I was commuting from north western New Jersey to Midtown Manhattan. It was a 2.5 hour ride each way. After months of tv, books and movies, I got mentally sick of media and I decided to teach myself how to knit. After a few scarves, and a shawl for my mother this was the first pattern I tried. Ironically it’s also the first time I decided to deviate from a pattern. I added extra repeats to make it long enough to become what was supposed to be a king size blanket.

Instead I got bored with it. The 4 row, 19 stitch pattern, after more than a dozen 100 repeat long strips, became more like torture than fun. Eventually couldn’t even force myself to work on it while watching TV. I made a rule for myself that I was going to do at least one strip between projects, but I didn’t even stick to that plan. I’ve been picking this up and putting it down for 5 years now until finally a coworker convinced me to put together what I had. This is half of what will be a 15 strip wide hand knitted blanket. Strip 14 is on my needles and I’m assembling the rest in between knitting sessions.

Motivated by the how beautiful it looks assembled and with the end in site, February 2012 will be the month I finish my first big project. My how life has changed since then, I’m still at that same job, but I’ve moved much closer. I’m still hacking patterns, but have now moved on to creating my own.

I’ll do a full write up on the pattern and yarn with more photos once it is completed. Anyone else have any UFOs hanging over their heads they want to finish?

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