Tag Archives: Rambling Rows

Rows are Rambling Again

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There hasn’t been much to brighten our days lately. I thought I’d knit something to keep my eyeballs entertained during this long winter of our discontent. Did I maybe go overboard?

This is enough yarn to knit a full-sized Rambling Rows blanket by Carol A. Anderson of Cottage Creations. It’s, she clears her throat, my 10th. Does a knitted item count if you don’t have a photo to prove it? If so, then this is my 11th.

Just about everyone who sees this, or who saw my color choices before those 22 skeins turned into this, asked me if this goes with my decor. No. Not one bit. I believe that everyone breathes a sigh of relief upon hearing my answer. Maybe they feel reassured that I don’t live in a Crayola Crayon box. Why do this? Why knit 4,144 yards of not-inexpensive Rowan Pure Wool Superwash worsted only to be left with something that matches nothing. I am not sure. I think it has something to do with COVID stresses, with feeling gloomy, with sunrise happening too late and sunset happening too soon.

Knitting this happy blanket was a salve for how the world is too much with us yet. Here it is laid out on my queen-sized bed.

I’ve knit Rambling Rows and written about it a number of times during the nearly 11 years I’ve been writing this blog. Check here for another knit in this same Rowan yarn, and here for one in Plymouth Yarns Encore, and here for one in Berroco Comfort, and here for four more including one on steroids, and here for one knit in 1995.

Rambling Rows has obviously become a major knitting stutter for me. I repeat it at least every few years. It’s knitting comfort food. I know it always works out. Maybe not always colorwise because this knitter sometimes has the color sensibilities of a 5 year old. But knitting 2.34 miles of garter stitch soothes me like not much else.

Most of the Cottage Creation booklets have been digitized and they’re available for purchase on Ravelry, including Rambling Rows. If you don’t yet own this classic knit I highly recommend you check it out. The booklet includes 3 sizes of blankets and lots of hand-holding for those who need it. Anymore I just turn to the center fold chart and cast-on.

My rows are rambling again

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My major knitting since mid-July has been to work up nearly 3300 yards (15 skeins) of Rowan Pure Wool Superwash Worsted into a throw. Well, a blanket really. I’ve knit nine of these guys. Yep. Nine. Rambling Rows Afghan by Cottage Creations’ Carol A. Anderson is my all-time favorite afghan pattern.

Rowan Superwash is quite a lightweight worsted. So I didn’t knit it to gauge, which would have needed a heftier worsted and size 8 or even size 9 needles. I used US size 6 needles and the fabric came out just right. It’s a lightweight blanket. Here it is laying atop a queen-sized mattress. (Forgive the clashing quilt.)

This Rambling Rows will live in a TV-watching/office room decked out in earth tones. I think the grays, gold and orange worked out great and the blanket really pops resting on the back of the sofa.

Did I come up with these colors, Charcoal, Granite, Moonstone, Seville and Gold on my own? No. Never in a million years. I first bought the yarn intending to knit Star-Eyed Julep Throw by Kay Gardiner, Ann Shayne, and Kirsten Kapur. Here’s that throw. It uses these same five Rowen Pure Wool Superwash colorways.

I asked to be gifted the book containing this throw, Drop Dead Easy Knits, specifically so I could knit Star-Eyed Julep. I even worked through the errata supplied on Ravelry and started knitting the first quadrant of the throw. I was not satisfied with the not-crisp edge-turns of what’s basically the Mason-Dixon log cabin technique adapted to create that star. Apparently it takes a better knitter than me to master the technique. After starting the Star-Eyed 3 times I decided I might drop dead before I completed the thing. But oh my those colorways are so perfect together.

So, I acquired the additional yarn I needed (difficult, since the Seville colorway is discontinued) and my new Rambling Rows was hatched.

I couldn’t be more pleased with the project. And I credit the Drop Dead Easy Knits trio with my success because this Rambling Rows is all about their inspired colorway choices.

P.S. Even though I picked up the garter stitch mitered edge the way I always do on my Rambling Rows, this more lightweight yarn picked up a little ruffle. I’ve steamed it a bit since these photos were taken and it’s tamed.

Here’s the rest of my Rambling Rows, if you’d like to see how this blanket works up in different colorways: here, here, here’s four, and another here. I know, that’s not nine. You’ll just have to take my word on that.

Heirloom acrylics

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Green_blankie

I knit this green throw in the summer of 1978. Jimmy Carter was president. It’s alternating simple seed stitch and reverse stockinette panels. For reasons that are now obscure, I lined up leaves in long rows on the reverse stockinette. I was 26 years old, had already been knitting for 18 years, and was quite proud of my creation. Recalling my knitting budget, this would definitely have been discount department store acrylic. Thirty-five years ago I was a solo knitter, without the support of a local yarn shop or a “Knitlist.” And Ravelry was just a gleam in Jess and Casey’s parents’ eyes. But knit happened anyway.

This throw graced the back of a series of couches, used and new. The couches long ago moved on to parts unknown (or at least unrecalled). But the green throw lives on. It traveled to my son’s new home in the past few years. He, his wife, and their Chocolate Lab, Roxie, are still using it and it still looks basically OK. Even the fringe has held up well.

Here’s another look at the remarkable staying power of acrylics.

green_blankie2

This next blanket is an early full-sized Rambling Rows. It might even have been my first Rambling Rows, that wonderful Cottage Creations pattern by Carol Anderson that I come back to again and again for heavy doses of garter stitch.

Rambling_Rows

This Rambling Rows was knit around 1995, of a variegated acrylic that was LYS-purchased and more on the pricey side. I recall it as being a Spanish yarn, but don’t remember the producer. My son used this blanket on his bed for many years. It led a hard life in dorm rooms and in rental homes. When I visited him a few weeks ago, I slept under it. It’s still going strong, still keeping the family warm.

Rambling_Rows2

Rambling Rows, again

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It’s been a bit quiet lately in the knitting corner of the blog. That’s because I’ve been working on a large-sized Rambling Rows afghan. This wonderful pattern is from Cottage Creations’ Carol Anderson and Pat Penney. It satisfies all the garter stitch lovers among us. Garter stitch is the first stitch we learn as young knitters. Every time I return to it, it feels familiar and soothing.

This afghan has 55 mitered sections and is a major project for sure. This is my tenth Rambling Rows, the fifth full-sized one I’ve made. It is photographed above on a queen-sized bed. This one is knitted of Plymouth Encore. Easy care seems like a good idea with a project of this size.

I am a bit unsure of my color choice. But maybe cranberry, tan, brown, peach and green sort of work well, especially because this afghan will be living in a room with a cranberry accent wall.

Cottage Creations’ booklets are not available (yet) in downloadable form. But lots of on-line shops carry the Rambling Rows booklet as well as many local yarn shops.

Small fry Rambling Rows

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This is another Rambling Rows, the brain child of Cottage Creations’ Carol Anderson and Pat Penney. It’s the smallest of the versions the pattern provides. On size 7 needles, knitted up in the worsted weight version of Berroco Comfort, it is 28 inches by 34 inches. To me, it seems like it would be an excellent size for a car seat cozy.

Comfort has great color selection: 66 solids, 13 heathers and 14 print shades. Color choice is not always my strong suit, but I am pleased with how these play together. Quite a 60’s sensibility, including avocado, burnt orange, dark brown. There are a lot of stitches to pick up as each of the individual 55 mitred blocks are connected together. Comfort was a bit splitty for that task. But with just a bit of extra care it worked out fairly well.