Pinwheel Blanket

This is by far the ugliest thing that I have ever made.  A pinwheel blanket made of reclaimed yarn.  Before pictures here on Ravelry.

It really is the ugliest thing ever.  I almost hate it.  Don't like the color, don't like the 2ply gray - white mix.  It's really not my style.  All the little knots and ends just add to the yuckiness.

A couple of years ago I was helping my dad move and I came across his Goodwill box and a giant sweater of his that he is now too small for.   I saw all that free yarn and thought that I would make a throw blanket for his new and very chilly house.  Just the thought of how optimistic and naive I was when thinking this would be a cool project makes me laugh.  I'm a far pickier knitter now.  Like the kid that won't eat their chicken nuggets because they are touching the mac'n cheese. 

Frogging this was a nightmare.  It wasn't a continuous knit piece of fabric but rather a cut piece of fabric.  I was determined and started tying all the little strings of yarn together with square knots.  I should of stopped there, darn those rose-colored glasses.

With both sleeves knit up and half the front I finally put the blanket down and it was never picked up again.  Making a couch sized circular blanket takes a very long time.  And it smelled bad because I neglected to wash the sweater before frogging it.  Finally, I stopped.

I dug it back out after finishing the Wallis because I really enjoyed binding off a project that had been sitting around for a long time.  I finished the row that I had stopped in the middle of.  Did one round of purl and then bond off.  It took about an hour.

I guesstimate that I used about 1/3 of the yarn in the sweater.  The entire back and part of the front hadn't even been frogged yet.  It comes to a nice baby blanket size.  Too small for me to use, but great for one of the girls to use.  And I washed it so it smells like Downy Lavender. :)

I took pictures of the blanket before washing, just in case the square knots didn't hold through the wash.  The knots were fine and I found three dropped stitches that started to run.  It just adds to the ugliness of it.

I am so glad that I finished this up right where it was left.  I don't have to spend another minute thinking about it and now I have the perfect blanket to take camping.  Because I really don't care if anything happens to it.