It’s been a while since I’ve completed a knitting project. I had a couple of projects on the needles, but they’ve been hibernating. I was finally ready to finish my Starflanket Mini and solely focus on finishing it. Keep reading for my experience knitting my Starflakent Mini:
I knit the Starflanket by Stephen West before and I loved it! I use this blanket all the time and I remember loving knitting it because I was able to use up a lot of my stash.
YARN
So this time, I gathered all of my leftover yarns and made a plan to use up my stash. I wanted to create some different color combinations than I usually do.
The Starflanket uses DK weight yarn and I planned on holding my fingering weight yarn double or together with one strand of a lace weight fluffy yarn to meet gauge. Fingering + lace weight is my favorite combination. It has the structure from the fingering and the fuzzy halo from the lace. I think it feels nice and has a really nice drape.
STARFLANKET MINI
I started out knitting this blanket as written in the pattern. I was really happy with my center star shape and the join I got in the center. I wanted the blanket to use color combinations I don’t usually use.
I love knitting with my stash because it feels great using up small quantities of yarn that I’ve just been hanging on to. I also really like the “low pressure” to chose perfect colors or plan everything out. I can just grab any color and freely knit.
I knit through the stripes sections and used a lot of new to me color combinations. Some yarn quantities were low so I had to switch colors in the middle of a section. This gave my blanket a very scrappy, eclectic look. After knitting the stripes, I put this blanket in a hibernation. I just needed a break from all knitting and took that time to explore other creative outlets.
Back From Hibernation
When I returned to this project, I started the brioche section. I was a little nervous to knit brioche after such a long break from knitting anything. But I remembered easily and I was enjoying getting back to this project.
That was the beginning of the end for this blanket. I was enjoying the brioche but I didn’t love my color choices. I was using some fluffy neon yellow and I thought that would be the background color, but it was the foreground color. It looked okay and I thought it would grow on me but I wasn’t liking it. Of course I could have ripped back, but I hadn’t used a lifeline and fuzzy yarn is hard to tink back.
I guess the knitting motivation wasn’t back as much as I thought it was. Usually I would have no issue ripping back — if I’m going to spend so much time knitting, I want it to be something I’m happy with. But this time, I was just ready to end the project. That’s why this Starflanket is a Mini. I knit an i-cord and just ended this blanket right in the middle of the brioche section.
I like the blanket and I’m happy with the size. I’m glad I ended it when I did. I washed and blocked the Starflanket Mini and I think I’ll tackle the other pending project I have once I have a little more inspiration.
Check out my Ravelry to see some of my other knitting projects!
