Souvenirs

Woo hoo, a bonus blog post for the week, to make up for last week's post being late.

I am a big fan of souvenir yarn. I try to find a yarn shop every time I go somewhere, and when possible, I like to buy something locally sourced in some way, either locally dyed or whatever I can get. Normally, I prefer to get sock yarn, since it's easy to get and not hard to figure out how much of it you would need, and also pretty versatile - sock yarn can be used to make just about anything.

I don't just buy it myself, either - I love it when people bring me back yarn from travels. My boyfriend has become an expert at finding knitting shops when he travels for work and bringing me back something from him. In fact, on his last business trip he brought my yarn back in a box tied with pretty ribbon. I was impressed that he gift-wrapped it. He said, "After I told the two ladies who were working in the shop that I was there on a business trip and buying yarn for my knitter girlfriend, I don't think they would have let me walk away without getting it giftwrapped." The two ladies were apparently extremely impressed that he would do such a thing, and we both got a good chuckle out of it.

Anyway, even the yarn I have that isn't souvenir yarn holds memories, memories of where I bought it and what was happening in my life when I bought it, or when I made whatever project out of it. The other day, when the weather turned, I pulled on knitted socks for the first time in months, and remembered that I had knit them while visiting my grandparents.

Of course, I have leftovers from all of my various projects, and I'm trying to think of some way I can use those leftovers in such a way that I could gather all those memories up into one giant knitted project, a la sock blankie. But I'm not sure exactly what to do.

I really like the idea of the sock blankie, but honestly, I find the blankie itself a little intimidating. However, there are tons of mitred square afghans on Ravelry.

Maybe I could do some variation on a log cabin type thing? That seems like it would involve less math. The problem being, of course, that log cabin blocks get bigger as you radiate outward, and since I'm using leftovers, that's kind of a problem. I could do log cabin squares and sew them together.

I'm considering maybe something like the 10 stitch blanket. Pros: No sewing, no math. I could continue each yarn until I ran out. Cons: There's no telling how the colors will line up. It might be the ugliest blanket ever.

Or, I could just do things the old fashioned way and knit a bunch of squares and sew them together, as in the Barn Raising Quilt. I kind of hate sewing, but if I were a good girl and did it fairly regularly, it might be possible. Maybe.

I'm not expecting to start this anytime soon, or even get organized to start it any time soon, but it's something I want to be mulling over.