Today, I Delivered Our Lapghan!

Yay!

Today, I took our blanket to the Tree House Children's Advocacy Center in Monroe, NC.

They were so pleased to receive our blankets (I also gave them Oddball Lapghan #2). They also gave me a full tour of their facility! They are an awesome organization, and do excellent work with battered children and teens.

Our blanket has found a perfect home now. :)

Here you can see our blanket being held by Pamela Caskey, the South Region Director for United Family Services in Monroe.


Here we are again, in the Tree House exam room, nicely decorated with toys. The children choose a toy when they finish their physical exam. :)


Pamela showed me one of the handmade quilts that has been donated there. The children and teens choose a blanket before they start their exam, and they get to keep the blanket forever. Pamela says that sometimes the children are clutching their blanket when they come back for a follow-up appointment. It's nice to know that our blanket will be appreciated there!

ALL DONE!

ALERT THE MEDIA!!! REALLY!!!

Our blanket is READY to go to the battered women's and children's shelter now.
I added a crochet border this past week, and could not believe when I did the last stitch and wove in the yarn.

Our project was started two years ago, and it has been worth every second! :D

Yay! The Knitting on Our Lapghan is COMPLETE!

Alert the media!

This morning, I finally finished all the knitting on our lapghan, and finished weaving in all the ends as well. :)

As you know, I had to cut our lapghan in half recently, to do some work on parts that were drawing in too much on the sides of the lapghan.

Early this morning, I got the two halves, and used kitchener stitch to put them together. They look great!


Now, our lapghan looks AMAZING!!! All I have left to do is to add a crochet border, then we can give it to charity. YAY!!!

Here is the lapghan, laid out on the back of my little Mazda Protege.




And here are each of the three sections, with details on who knit them:

FIRST SECTION


The beige & green at the top was cast on and knit by me (Shandeh) in North Carolina, back in August of 2007.

The purple section was knit by Ladybug Lady in Ohio.

The multi-colored section was knit by debinoz in Kansas.

The tan, pink and green section was knit by Renoah in Michigan.

The green section was knit by Foxyie in Pennsylvania.

MIDDLE SECTION


The white section was knit by suziehomemaker in New York.

The beige section was knit by gmmarton in Connecticut.

The rose section was knit by Tobinknit in Washington State.

The variegated section was knit by PeattieWa in Washington State.

The tan section was knit by jjminarcik in Texas.

The red section was knit by Secksiebrat in Texas.

The dark blue section was knit by Jeremy in Connecticut.

LAST SECTION


The beige section was knit by losnana in Virginia.

The purple section was knit by misha rf in North Carolina.

The rest of the lapghan (5 sections) was knit by me (Shandeh) in North Carolina.

Woo Hoo! Our Lapghan is Looking Better!

As you know, we had to do "surgery" on our lapghan, because part of it were drawing in too tight. I removed the sections that were too tight (they were cabled), and sent the bottom half of our lapghan to the original knitter of one of those sections.

She was glad to re-knit her section, and I'm so pleased with her new work!


Here's how our lapghan looked BEFORE I removed the sections that were too tight.


I'm looking forward to seeing the two sections reconnected with the new knitting.
Here they are, sitting together, ready to be reunited. Kinda feels like a wedding. :P


Now, I'm working on the top section, adding more knitting. Our lapghan is too large to mail now, because shipping is just too expensive. So far, I've done 4 sections.


The first section I did was the green basketweave - I did that with Caron Simply Soft in Sage.

The next section was knit with 8 different yarns. Those yarns were just tiny balls of leftover yarn in a basket by my knitting chair. I just knit two rows of each color.

The section after that is all stockinette, using Red Heart Kids yarn. I just love how soft and comfy that yarn is! :)

Now, I'm finishing up a white section using I Love This Yarn from Hobby Lobby. So soft and squishable. I'm doing a design called "Tile Stitch" with that yarn. When I finish the white section, I'll measure the lapghan, and decide if it's long enough yet.

I'll be so glad when the knitting is complete on this lapghan, so it can go to the Battered Women's Shelter. :)

Doing "Surgery" on Our Lapghan for Charity

Now, I'm finishing up our Oddball Lapghan #1. It has some issues. A couple of the sections were knit in a cabled pattern, and it's causing the blanket to pull in and pucker there. So, I've made an executive decision to remove those parts. It was not easy, but I did it!

The cool thing is that I learned HOW to do it. I've never removed part of knitting before, so I had no idea how to do it. But, I decided to just dive in. I grabbed a pair of scissors and cut through the middle of the part I was removing. Then, I sat in my rocking chair and pulled out all the yarn from the bottom section until I got to the part I wanted to keep. Then, I put that part back on knitting needles. Next, I did the same to the top section, then did a 3 needle bind off to connect it back with the bottom section. It turned out just fine! :)

Here's the connected section, after my 3 needle bind off:


Here's the back of that section, showing the 3 needle bind off. I used light blue yarn to connect them. You can't even see the blue yarn on the front of the blanket.


So, now I'm working on the second section that needs to be removed. I've decided to mail the bottom half of our lapghan to the person who originally knit the cabled section. She is excited about getting a second chance to work on the lapghan! :D

Here's our lapghan, now in two parts. I've placed the bottom of the top half on a long stitch holder. Now, when I get the bottom half of our lapghan back from the other knitter, I'll do a 3 needle bind off to reconnect them. ;) It's nice to know how to do that now. :)


While the bottom half is with the other knitter, I'll keep knitting on the top half. Right now, I'm adding a green section with Caron Simply Soft in a simple basketweave design.