TV Watching Blanket

I call this my "TV watching blanket" because I made the entire thing while watching TV! I tend to do a lot of crafting while I'm doing other things. It's not uncommon to see me working on a cross-stitch or knitting while sitting and visiting with friends or family. It's a different kind of hobby- the multitasking craft, rather than the beautiful and challenging craft. You don't have to devote all your attention to keeping up with challenging steps or paying close attention to where you need to go next. It's more mechanical in nature, yet still handmade! This particular multitask project wasn't just fun to make, it's also practical- it's great for cuddling under, too. It's kind of ugly, though. I bought random colors of yarn years back because I liked them, but had no idea what in the world I was going to make of them. This is a habit of mine. I justify the purchase, thinking that I'll figure it out later. Well, I made three blankets way back when - yeah, like ten years ago (which is a long time ago if you're in your mid twenties) and gave them away to my closest friends.

Let me start by saying this blanket was not really planned out too well. I started out by using up some blue, then added the pretty green I picked out (my palate is very predictable) and decided that I was going to add some more texture than a simple garter stitch, which is knitting the same stitch every single row. Instead, I alternated stockinette and garter because that was the extent of my knowledge. It is very soft. I used Caron Simply Soft acrylic yarn (it would make true knitting fanatics cringe), but it was cheap yarn and super comfy. I used size 8 US circulars to accommodate the width.

I learned how to knit when I was so young (maybe 10 years old?) that it seemed like adding any new stitch patterns to my repertoire would be an insurmountable achievement. I'm sad to say that it took me until about six months ago to have enough confidence and curiosity to challenge myself to master the art of understanding patterns. And I found that it's not so hard (but still requires your brain!). So, hooray for learning, but also hooray for mindless crafts so we can socialize or watch movies and still be crafting with our hands. Gladly, I've added more stitches to my skill set, so I now have more mindless knitting that looks nicer, too. This is the blanket I finished about 2.5 years ago:

Featuring Agatha Christie's "A Body in the Library" and my phone. In the photo below (click to enlarge) you can see more of the texture pattern I made with alternating garter and stockinette stitches.

Only better things could come after this because I mastered many more stitch patterns! I even learned to do lace and knit in the round! If you're at all interested in finding me on Ravelry, my username is Craftstina, like the blog's name. Coming soon: more detailed mindless knitting projects!