Another month gone and I am still knitting but the titles for my recent two Blogs reference Charles Dickens and his story “A Tale of two Cities”.  I read this book in my first year at Grammar School. In the chapters  “Knitting” and “Still Knitting” the revolutionary Madame Defarge is knitting a register of the names of the hated aristocrats. Aged twelve I did not fully grasp  much of the meaning behind novel and I was very puzzled as to what stitches/ pattern Madame Defarge was knitting. I still am! 

So what am I  knitting? A baby blanket in Sirdar Crofter variegated yarn in delicate shades of mauve green, white and pale blue. I knitted a similar one ten years ago, using the “domino knitting” technique which involves working in squares. Each square begins as a single straight  row of stitches, then two stitches are decreased in the centre on alternate rows to create the square shape. Each consecutive square is worked by picking up stitches  and knitting onto a previous square. So there is no tedious stitching together at the end! The challenge is to plan ahead what orientation you want the diagonals to take. 

Right at the start of my project, I picked up stitches along the wrong edge causing one diagonal to be out of place. Would anyone else notice? After all, the blanket is going to be wrapped around a baby. BUT I noticed!! Had to unpick half a dozen squares!

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