We are lucky here in Raleigh, NC in that some of our machine knitters are knowledgeable about using zoom to set up our zoom meetings. So we have been able to continue our regular monthly meetings, now on zoom, and sometimes even an in-between meeting just for socializing and encouraging others to keep on knitting. Thanks to Phyllis in our Triangle Machine Knitters group for setting up our zoom meetings and helping us to learn how to use this medium.
I have a friend who volunteers at an animal shelter. She loves working with the kitties and let me know that those kitties need small blankets to cuddle with and sleep on. I finally got my act together and found a pattern for animal shelter blankets at https://annsroost.wordpress.com/animal-shelter-blankets/
The size my friend wanted was not exactly the size Ann had written up so I adapted it. I knit the width of the 12x12 blanket but used the 20x20 inch length. I have not taken these to my friend yet, but others I donated were close enough to what they needed.
I like the double bed slip stitch pattern, as it makes the blanket sort of stable and not so floppy. I have been using up ends of cones or balls of yarn or even the unraveled yarns from false starts I have had with many projects. The yarns are all acrylics but some are 2/24 (which I use double) or up to British 4 ply. I wind similar weights of yarns into balls, just tying on a new yarn when the old one is all used up. I have found that I can USUALLY knit right through the yarn knots!
I say USUALLY because sometimes the machine balks and drops the stitch where the join is. If that happens I just keep on knitting. After the blanket is off the km I latch up the hole and fasten it with a short length of yarn (not necessarily the same color!) and weave in the ends. Neither the cats nor the workers care if the blankets have mistakes or funny colored sewed up holes!
My animal blankets are ending up approximately 12x20 inches. If all goes well, then there are only 2 ends to weave in....and I just thread them through the fabric between the front and the back of this double bed fabric.
These are fun to make and I love getting rid of those mistakes and bits of leftover yarns.
The purple blanket was knit with 1 strand of pink and one strand of lavender knit together. They had been stacked so one fed through the other. In that photo you can see the design. In the multicolored blankets I can see the colors in waves (the result of slip stitches) but I cannot see the design. Also sometimes I forgot to set the carriage to slip, so I ended up with full needle rib instead of a slip stitch design. It all works for the kitties!!
