Tossing my Hemlock in the Ring

I've been itching to try the Hemlock Ring vintage doily with the modifications made by Jared to turn it into a blanket. It's been nearly 20 years since I knit anything resembling a blanket or afghan. (The last was a blue lace afghan for my sister, a Christmas present I made while I was an undergrad.) The only thing preventing me from casting on months ago was that I wanted to finish the Urban Aran for J. When I went out to buy the zipper for the Urban Aran, I grabbed yarn for the Hemlock. It really couldn't wait: The store was down to its last 3 skeins of Cascade Ecological Wool in latte, and I didn't want to miss them -- especially given that I don't know how long it would take to order more. Bird in the hand...



Isn't it pretty in its simplicity? I love how big and square the hand-pull gets!

Decided to start with magic ring on 40” US10s and shift to full-out circular when possible. That happened around row 40. There’s a lot of bandwidth out there devoted to getting people through tricky rows and/or correcting errors. I haven’t had any problems with the pattern as written to indicate that someone couldn’t get through it without all the help. Row 35 is fine as written as long as you are conceptualizing the sections/repeats. If you’re simply knitting stitch-by-stitch and not visualizing the big picture, you’ll have trouble no matter what. It’s like learning a new language and making the shift from thinking word-by-word to thinking in sentences.

So far so good!