I know I said I wasn’t going to bore anyone with further progress on my
North Truro Counterpane, but I did get to an interesting point
yesterday, and my inbox has been graced with several questions.

First, the show and tell:

As
you can see, I finished a couple more side squares of Motif #3, and
seamed in most of the other little triangles that I knit over the
weekend. That let me join #3 onto the two units I had already
completed. I like the accidental trillium flower of negative space that
forms where three motifs join. I’d love to say that was intentional,
but it wasn’t. There’s lots that science doesn’t know about this
designing stuff, yet.

Now for the mailbag:

Aren’t you going to have a bushel of ends to deal with?

Two
bushels. Even though I’m knitting the squares out from the hex center,
there’s two for the center hex, plus two for each for six squares, plus
two each for six triangles, minus one for the hex end I use to do the
first square, and one for the end that doesn’t get started at the
outset of that first square. 24 in all for each motif. As you can see
in the pix, I like to leave them long so they’re available for sewing
the motifs together. As I get further into the thing, I’ll know WHICH I
need to leave particularly long, and which I can plan to be shorter.
Still, I plan on darning in ends incrementally as I go along rather
than waiting for the end of the entire project.

Why aren’t you blocking the motifs before sewing them together?

Good
question. Sometimes I do block the motifs before I assemble them. This
time I didn’t. This particular no-name yarn and needle combo seem to
produce motifs that lie relatively flat, showing the openwork well
without the block. I suspect my squish problem WOULD be partially fixed
by blocking, but leaving the hex motif live on the circular as I finish
out the squares isn’t exactly conducive to the knit-block-assemble
production method. Plus pinning out each night’s production means
leaving the ironing board up to do the blocking, and I don’t want to
trip over it for the next umpteen months.

Are you going to leave the edges wavy?

I
could. You can see that the lower edge makes a nice gentle wave. I
could leave the thing raw, edge it with I-cord, or sew on a (yet to be
designed) complementing edge strip just as it is. But I probably won’t.
Just on the principle that the biggest fun comes from the most abstruse
and useless effort, I’ll probably do up half hexes and half squares to
produce a nice straight edge, then affix that as yet mythical edging to
it.

Lovely crib blanket! You’re nuts for spending so much effort on a baby blanket.

Huh?
This is destined to be an oversized Queen-size spread for my own bed.
(I’ve knit a blankie for each of the kids, why can’t I have one, too?)
If you think I’m addled for attempting this as a mini-throw, I’m sure
you think I’m a gibbering raving loon for doing one that big.