Throw(s)

Once upon a time I had a knitting machine. Well, to be accurate, I had three. I also collected a lot of yarn to knit on them.

After 10 years or so I got bored with machine knitting. I had a mad burst of knitting sweaters for Oxfam with all the acrylic yarn, gave away the machines, but kept the wool yarn, with a vague idea that I would knit it by hand. Three and four ply? By hand? Yeh, right.

Another 10 years passed. The wool sat in a cupboard, gathering dust and moths. There was quite a lot. What the heck could I do with it?

Eventually inspiration struck. I came across a pattern for a square throw knitted from the middle out, in US worsted weight. If I used two or three ends together, it would be roughly equivalent to worsted.

There was a problem. There were some full cones (probably 400/500 gms) but far more odds and ends. I had the idea to use one or two of the bigger cones along with a mixture of the smaller ones. Fortunately there's a fairly restricted colour range, so I assembled three groups - blues, pinks and greys and greens. (Why so many greens? I have never worn green!)

I knitted and knitted and knitted. It was a simple slip stitch pattern, which was mindless enough to do while reading or watching TV, and helped to blend the colours.

So now I have three warm woolly throws on the sofas. Only the blue one matches the decor, but on a cold night we can snuggle under them, so who cares!