Spud says (the blog)

Border Time

Hi Spud & Chloë Friends,

Today I happily sit and knit the border on the yummy Outer baby blanket I am whipping up. As I was sitting in my living room knitting I stopped for a minute to look at the beautiful pile of Outer in my lap. I happened to have my camera right next me so I took a photo for you of my view. Lovely, isn’t it?

This blanket is really taking shape nicely if I do say so myself. When I make a blanket that needs a border there is always a lot to take into consideration. I thought about a crochet border, a border in one shot with mitered corners, an attached I-cord border and some different color options for the border.

I wound up deciding to use the colorway called Hedge for the border. Here is what I am doing, I simply start on one side with the live stitches, complete a garter stitch border with 3 rows, do a Russian bind off (see the link below), turn and continue on to the next side where I pick up stitches. I am repeating this until each side is complete. It is done without cutting the yarn which is always good.  Also, it gives a clean but substantial border for the blanket.

I love to try new things with each project I do. For this project I tried several new stitch patterns, a crochet provisional cast on and the Russian bind off.

Click here to see my new video tutorial for the provisional cast on I used for this project! If you receive the email version of this post, I realize that for some reason the video tutorials don’t come through with the email. That is why I am providing the link again here.

For the Russian bind off I checked out this video tutorial:

Click here to Paula of The Knitting Pipeline’s video tutorial for the Russian bind off (I only do the bind off knitwise for this blanket.)

One last important thing, I am teaching a Spud & Chloë class on Sept. 16th, 2011 at The Creative Collection in St. Paul, Minnesota. I am very excited about this as it is going to be a fantastic event. September 16th is Vogue Knitting Day at the event and there are all sorts of wonderful classes and teachers with the focus on knitting. It is a knitting star-studded event (that’s kind of funny).

I am offering two separate Toy Knitting Workshops. I will post about this again with more detail soon. For now though here is the link to sign up before the classes fill:

Click here to check to find out the details and to register for my class!

I’ll be back soon with more blanket news…

Filed under: General, Things We Love |

12 Responses to “Border Time”

  1. July 27, 2011 at 5:07 pm Suzanne says:

    I always like it when I get to push myself to try something new on a project. I recently did the Russian bind off as well. It made the edge much stretchier than a regular bind off which i needed on my shawl edge. Your project looks great and so do your sandals.

    • July 27, 2011 at 5:15 pm sanderson says:

      thanks suzanne and thanks for all of the supportive and fun comments you leave! i appreciate that so much.

  2. July 27, 2011 at 8:25 pm Leslie says:

    Looks like it will go great in your living room – you sure it is for a baby? Looking forward to seeing the finished project.

    • July 27, 2011 at 10:41 pm sanderson says:

      You know what, this blanket would be a thing of beauty as a throw for the couch or even bigger. My version is about 30 by 30 inches so it is a baby blanket size. However, just by adding more squares it could be a big person blanket! I want one for sure.

  3. July 27, 2011 at 8:39 pm Kelly Martin says:

    Love the Hedge and I’m so excited to try the Russian bind off. I’ve been practicing my provisional cast on. I’m excited to begin the squares. All of your wonderful work, encouraging all of us to learn the next technique, you are a natural teacher. Thanks Susan!

    • July 27, 2011 at 10:39 pm sanderson says:

      Thank you. I love the Hedge colorway, too. I would love a sweater in that color.

  4. July 28, 2011 at 8:36 am Mom in a Box says:

    I love to learn new techniques with each project, too. I love your patterns so much because they are challenging, yet are straightforward and easy to understand. I look forward to learning the Russian Bind Off, and wish I could come to one of your classes. Maybe one day….

    • July 28, 2011 at 9:07 am sanderson says:

      I wish you could come, too!

  5. July 28, 2011 at 10:36 am Monica says:

    You are such a tease!!! I’ve been following your progress on this blanket and I can’t wait to get the pattern to start knitting it! All the colors look absolutely beautiful!

  6. July 30, 2011 at 12:32 am Renee says:

    Ohhh, the blanket looks so wonderfully soft and squishy. I can imagine myself cocooned in it’s snuggly warmth. We’ve had over 40 days of 100+ degree weather here in Texas, so cooler weather and a cozy blanket sounds like pure heaven!

  7. July 30, 2011 at 3:44 pm Jessica says:

    Dear Susan,
    Thanks for the link to the Russian bind off. I had never heard of it before but it was just what I needed. When you wrote this post I just had a few more rows left of a blanket and was wondering which bind off I would use. It worked great and I love it. Thanks!

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