Saturday, March 25, 2006

Lessons in Fishing

I'm kind of in limbo land right now. Not flying out until Wednesday since the funeral will be Friday. It's strange being here, it really doesn't seem real - some days are definitely better than others. Thankfully I have wonderful and amazing friends, co-workers and, especially, hubby, who are amazingly supportive and kind. I also have the knitting... wonderful, relaxing, meditative knitting.

The fish afghan is so close to finishing, I have 19 more fish to sew together and pictures will be coming very soon. So I wanted to share the lessons I've learned from the fish.

8 things I've learnt from the fish

1. Chenille sucks, it is a PITA, I hate it - REALLY, in all serious earnestness. It goes bald, it twists, it feels like plastic, hurts my fingers, dries my hands and even smells funny. If I ever have to knit, sew or even see chenille again (apart from this afghan), I may have to hurt someone...
2. The 3 needle bind off on the fish tails was not my best idea. The back of the blanket does not lay flat, and isn't so neat. I recommend sewing all of it instead.
3. Chenille sucks.
4. Weaving in the ends as you do the fish is HIGHLY recommended (I am resenting the time it's taking to do this while sewing the blanket together).
5. Sewing the fish together as you go along is about personal preference. I wanted to sew them all together at the same time for consistency, but some might prefer to do it as they go along, a little at a time (particularly if sewing is not your thing) but your sewing may vary day to day, so you might see a variation.
6. Chenille sucks.
7. Just having two colors of the fish really shows the tessellation effect - that may defeat the 'stash-buster' appeal for many doing this blanket - but if you can use 2 colors, it's great just MHO.
8. Most importantly, I dislike chenille intensely, and will never knit with it again.