Okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but I did start this blanket last July. I think that makes it my loooongest knitting project ever (hey. I'm into instant gratification). It's the Wild Stripes Blanket from Knitty. I loved the designed color choices so much, I bought the same stuff (from Knitpicks). And then slowly, slowly, slowly knit this thing. Thankfully, the change of colors every few rows made things a tiny bit interesting, otherwise, I don't think I would have ever made my way through all that stockinette stitch. I dragged this project from beach to beach all summer, and finished the knitting just before Adelaide was born. The pattern says to weave in the ends as you go, which I didn't do, of course. And it took me five HOURS just to do that.
And then it sat and sat, waiting for first, the perfect fabric, and then waiting even longer for me to get the time (or rather, motivation) to put the two pieces (and the piping) together. I'm not so in love with blind stitching by hand, let alone putting a knitted piece, with sometimes funky edging, together with fabric. But I forged ahead.
And so then it sat some more, waiting for the embroidery to happen. And this week--feeling sad and a bit funky, I've been craving just that kind of a monotonous activity. So, hooray! The blanket is now complete!
The pattern is very clearly written, and definitely there's nothing difficult about it, it's just that it's SO much of the same thing. So much stockinette knitting, so much weaving in, so much blind stitching, and so much embroidery. I think it takes someone with more patience than I to complete this in less than a year. ;) But even with all that complaining about the blanket, I do LOVE the finished result. It's so warm and big and the colors are great.
Adelaide likes it too. She likes it so much, in fact, that she thinks the french knots are nipples, and can't leave them alone. (I don't think my nipples look like that, by the way).
