My big herringbone blanket is finished! I think that I started it somewhere near April last year, and I have been working on it ever since - well not during the hot Summer months! It's massive, squishy, extremely warm, cosy and absolutetely glorious. I love it to pieces. Now that its cold again, the blanket is following me wherever I go, and wherever I find myself working during the day (kitchen --> couch --> desk --> kitchen)
The yarn that I have used is the Sister Yarn (in the Oatmeal colorway) by Knit Collage which is a beautiful thick&thin handspun yarn.
“All of the Knit Collage dyeing, carding and spinning takes place in Punjab, India. When the business first started in 2010, we spent countless hours teaching uneducated women how to craft the yarn designs on traditional spinning wheels. We now happily employ a total 15 women who we rely on for all aspects of the business. Not all of those women are spinners. We also employ ladies who soley card fiber, crochet tiny flowers, embroider sparkly paisleys, organize trims or check each skein for quality. The list goes on! Truly each yarn is specially handcrafted with love and care. ”
I have used 6 skeins of the yarn, and cast on something like 280 stitches and knit the herringbone stitch until I pretty much ran out of yarn. I kept enough yardage to make sure that I could had some fringes on two sides on the blanket. It ended up beeing large enough to cover myself completety (It's was a selfish blanket kind of project! No space for two!).
As for the needles I have used a pair of Addi wooden fixed needles in 12mm needles! Let's say that I needed a bit of adjustment after knitting for a very long time with 4mm needles predominently!
This was the most perfect relaxing/meditative/no-brainer type of knitting. Something that I could work on in the evening, without having to think about anything except making sure that my tension wasn't too tight.
The only piece of advice that I could give you if you are planning to make a chunky piece in herringbone stitch, is to make sure that you're not casting on/knitting too tighly, otherwise it could be very difficult to knit the stitch, and you'll probably end up with some wrist pain.
I'd love to hear what kind of blanket you've knit in the past, or if you're planning of knitting one for yourself this winter!
Warmly,
Melody