Projects
Log Cabin = Love
It’s nigh unto impossible for me to keep a secret, especially about my knitting. The impulse to share it in real time, on MDK and Instagram and anywhere else I can buttonhole other knitters and say: LOOK WHAT I’M KNITTING ISN’T KNITTING THE COOLEST THING EVER—has been reinforced over all these years of nonstop blabbing. It’s an autonomic thing my brain stem just does.
But recently, I managed to keep a project under wraps for six whole weeks. I’m busting to tell you!
But First, Meet the Klatch
Here’s the Klatch.
the klatch in connemara: From left: Niki, Claire, Diana, Sheenagh, Cecily and Laurie.
It’s not my Klatch. This particular Klatch is a Rhode Island-based group of jolly, adventurous, accomplished women. My dear chum Diana is a card-carrying Klatch member.
I had heard about the Klatch for years, with that mix of wistfulness and mild skepticism one feels about the friends of one’s close friends. Last May, when I visited Providence, the Klatch convened a special Saturday lunch to meet me, and to show me Knit One Quilt Too, a shop in Barrington, Rhode Island, because I don’t buy enough yarn apparently.
I fell in love with them immediately of course. It was klatch at first sight.
We talked too long over lunch, and then Diana had to ferry a teenager somewhere, so the Klatch was dispatched to take me to the yarn store.
The Klatch Hatches a Scheme
As soon as Diana was out of earshot, the Klatch unloaded a plan: for Diana’s Big Birthday party coming up in September, they wanted to present her with a log cabin blanket knitted by the group.
I have no idea why they thought I would find this information relevant to my life.
The plan was simple: the Klatch would knit the squares (even though not all of them are knitters, that’s merely a detail if you have the Klatch Can Do attitude). They would send me the squares. I would join up the squares and do the finishing. (The Klatch is good at delegating.)
I would also pick out the yarn and tell them everything they had to do. The Klatch is adventurous, but judicious; it knows its limits.
Oh, all right, I said. I guess I do like log cabin blankets as a gesture of love. I guess I will do this. (Bwahaha; I barely knew them, but they had already played into my hands.)
We cheerfully lurched across the parking lot from the restaurant to Knit One Quilt Too. I’m blaming that glass of pinot gris, or maybe it was the local cheese board, because I chose sock yarn—for a group that included beginners. I threw them right into the deep end. Go fingering weight or go home!
The instructions were simple: knit up 15 log cabin squares. Start with a patch any size, but end up with a square that is 72 stitches/ridges on all sides. Change colors often, stripe if you wish, have fun with it. I left it to the experienced knitters in the group to guide the newbies and make the math come out right. These gals are practically running the state of Rhode Island; how hard could it be to pull together a semi-improv log cabin blanket?
Fast Forward
In early August, the squares started to arrive.
By early August I also had over 500 texts in the group text the Klatch had set up for this project. Many many progress shots. I never knew who was talking—to me they all were just caffeinated-sounding 401 area code phone numbers—but I got to know them well as they knit along. These women took a joy in knitting that I remembered from my early blanket projects. WE ARE DOING THIS THING. They took their knitting everywhere. OH LOOK AT ME I’M KNITTING ON THE BEACH HOW CRAZY IS THAT. They got into a few terrible but predictable jams, with squares not being square and Spontaneous Hole Formation, and falling asleep while knitting in bed. All the things that make knitters shake our heads and love our hobby—they were fresh and new to this gang.
Someone always swooped in to rescue the downhearted. I believe some squares were ghost-knit as the deadline loomed.
On my part: all squares gratefully received. No questions asked. If you mailed it, you knitted it. Full credit awarded.
I wasn’t worried. But I wanted to see squares.
Joining Up
Mid-August, this was my coffee table.
Twelve of the fifteen. Not sure I documented the full fifteen.
At this point, it was very hard not to post to Instagram. I mean, really, this was a shameful waste of pixels. I may have relieved the pressure by posting one very close-up black and white shot, but even that made me worry that Diana would catch on. People who are having Big Birthdays are highly attuned to signs and portents.
Despite the lack of internet witnesses, I set to joining up. Instead of sewing the squares together using mattress stitch or whipstitch, I used my tried and true version of the three-needle bindoff method.
This is the same joinder method that is used for the Ninepatch Blanket in Field Guide No. 4, so you know what that means—we have reached:
The How-To Portion of This Story
It’s easier to show how to do this than to tell how to do it.
What you need: the yarn you’ll be using to join the blocks (and then strips of blocks); and two circular needles of adequate length.
You line up the edges to be joined, right sides up. With the RS facing and a circular needle, pick up one stitch in each garter ridge and bound-off stitch along that edge (just as if you were going to knit a new log cabin strip).
Then—and this is the tricky part—you do not cut the yarn. Using a second circular needle, and leaving a short (one inch, more or less) gap in the yarn, start picking up stitches from the RS along the edge of the other strip to be joined.
Now you have two circular needles with (ideally) the same number of stitches on each needle.
You start picking up with a new needle, but you do not cut the yarn. The most important thing is to ensure that you have the strips aligned the way you want them to be.
Slide all the stitches on both needles to the end where the working yarn is. (On the first needle, this will be the end where you started picking up stitches; on the second needle, it will be the end where you stopped picking up stitches.)
Arrange the strips with the right sides facing each other, and work a three-needle bindoff on the wrong side. (Insert a third needle into the front of the first stitch on each of the two circular needles, knit 1 through both stitches, *insert the needle into the front of the next stitch on each of the two needles, knit 1 through both stitches, bind off 1 stitch; repeat from * until all the stitches have been bound off.)
I used this method first to join the individual blocks into strips, and then to join the long strips into the blanket.
The back of a three-needle bindoff looks as nice as the front.
That wasn’t the end: I still had to work an applied i-cord edging all the way around the blanket.
This was the part that got dicey, because I was doing it right up until a few hours before the party.
The Klatch was Concerned. They were expecting a blanket.
The great i-cord meetup on the afternoon before the party.
Phew.
The final photo texted to the Klatch, T minus two hours. What, me worry?
It was done, and giving it to Diana was a mountaintop moment for the Klatch and for me.
Joy is blurry.
Happy birthday, dear Diana. I’m right behind you as we head into what I’m calling the Active Dotage phase of life. Pre-dotage? The new getting-up-there?
We are alive, and full of joy. Much knitting, and hopefully many cheese boards, lie ahead of us.
Happy birthday, Diana!
Such loving, caring friends
What a great joining technique! Happy birthday Diana. Birthdays are just an excuse to celebrate, they have nothing to do with your real age.
Friends add such depth to life. What a beautiful blanket.
Beautiful, touching, heart-warming. Well done, all of you!
What a great group gift. I’m sure she is thrilled!
Thank you for sharing this beautiful story. Made my day!
This is a beautiful story; what love and care for and from each participant. Kay, that was such a hard secret to keep…
What a treasure! Wonderful blanket, came out just beautiful!
But when you get to the end of your bind off, don’t you have a little one inch loop of yarn? Seems like you should snug the two ends closer. Or does that loop Magically Disappear somehow?
It magically disappears! I’ve tried to get it shorter but there is always a little bit of slack there at the beginning.
I put a photo of two of the joined-up squares on the MDK Instagram that shows how that little loop/length of yarn disappears into the bindoff.
What a wonderful story, and the resulting blanket is outstanding! What a lovely project to be a part of.
My current Log Cabin, A Buncha Squares, is resting now, as other projects with time deadlines leap to the fore, but I have a nice little pile of 11 squares sitting there to remind me how much fun it is.
I did one for my granddaughter’s wedding, but I love the idea of using sock yarn, so much softer and not so heavy. Thank you Kay!
Beautiful blanket, beautiful story.
That is epic and amazing! I clearly need a Klatch so I can get in on such shenanigans!
Lovely friends! That blanket is beautiful. The 3-needle bind off really does a number on my wrists so I crochet my blocks/rows together. Knitters find a way!
Love this. My RI group of friends is The Claque. Only a cu couple of us knit but we are solidly knit together. Maybe it’s a Rhode Island thing.
this was one of the best posts ever on this site.. its nice to learn new things and other parts of life but to have this kind of knitting friendship is rare and to be treasured.. I hope the klatch understands that and wouldn’t it be great to have a knitting community klatch among friends!! loved this, thanks for sharing
Thank you, Debbie, for such kind words. I like being a Visiting Klatch member a lot.
That’s a great looking blanket and I do love the idea of the three needle bind off. Sounds speedy. But I am wondering about that little inch of yarn between the two needles. Does it disappear? Do you have to have it? Why not just snug up the two needles?
I’ve tried it to snug them as close as possible and this is the best I can manage. The good news is that the yarn gap/loop disappears by the time you get back to that end. Magic!
There is a photo on the MDK Instagram showing that the loop disappears. When you think about it, that’s the nature of knitting, to absorb and distribute slack among the stitches. Think of what happens if you have made a stitch in error and you drop it on the next row. At first there is an extra little “ladder” of yarn there that looks very gappy, and then it adjusts itself into the line of stitches. As if by magic!
Kay, you are a wonderful story teller. I was a bit confused about “not cutting the yarn” because I found myself thinking that picking up stitches was just sliding the needle into a stitch; BUT you are actually knitting the picked up stitch—is that right? Thank you! Michelle
I love this so much!
Oh, how wonderful!! Happy Birthday, Diana!
What a wonderful group of friends. What a wonderful, charming story.
Thanks.
Happy birthday, Diana!
Lovely blanket, lovely friendship. Thanks for sharing this story (and keeping it a secret for 6 weeks!)
Kay and Klatch!
Thanks so much for my cozy blanket and most of all for your friendship. And Kay — what can I say — you’re the bestest friend a gal could have. Can’t wait for March . . .
Love, Diana
I wanna join the Klatch!
Happy birthday, Diana! This story has been the first thing that makes me want to try a log cabin blanket! And, I can’t wait wait to hear what will be cooked up for Kay’s Special Birthday
Beautiful blanket, wonderful friends.
Gorgeous!
What a beautiful, happy sight of a log-cabin blanket of love!
You have a generous heart to help with their project. Love your story. And thanks for the inspiration. I am 13 of 20 squares into a log cabin blanket, and in need of inspiration to keep going. Thank you for that!
A helluva story/blanket/group/inspiration! As a RIer I love Knit One Quilt Too and am desperately in need of a Klatch of some kind. (Aren’t we all?)
This is such a great story! And a wonderful gift. I’ve been blessed with a similar group of friends who all knit a bunch of squares for my hen night for my sister to sew together. I ended up doing that bit, but it was such a joy to see each of my friends’s personalities in their squares. It now sits in my son’s bedroom where we sometimes snuggle under it for stories……
“I ended up doing that bit.” Maybe for my birthday I will just ask for the squares!
Well, I didn’t want to say that it was one of the highlights of the wedding festivities but. Well. You know. Mattress stitch.
Great story. Well told.
I could not love this more. You re-enticed me with your talk (and book!) of log cabins into knitting a desperately-needed log cabin kitchen towel. As the towel came together so quickly and beautifully, I thought, “Now I remember how fun this is! I should probably knit a log cabin blanket.” And now, this wonderful post, with its easy-to-follow instructions! I love Diana’s blanket, and the audacity of its sock yarns, but I happen to have many skeins of handspun in worsted weight around. (Partner is a spinner.) That blanket would be heavier, but go faster for a single knitter than this sock yarn extravaganza. So…maybe a blanket for us for [insert Winter holiday of your choice]? Thank you!
Lovely storey
Such a happy joyful knitting/ birthday story!! And, I think I gotta start my own Klatch… 🙂
From the newbie Klatch knitter who contributed ghost-knit squares: It was such a joy (with the happy collaboration of friends and birthday surprise in store for dear Diana) – and I learned (through my one magical square!) to love knitting so much that I just can’t stop! Thank you, Kay and Diana, for inspiring the creation and the gift of the love of a beautiful craft. XXX
You are a genuinely good egg!
Love the technique as well.
❤️ I have no words.
Again with the making me cry!
Everything about this story – Every,Single.Thing. – is just so joyous and wonderful and charming and adventurous and perfect. And at the end there is a handknit blanket filled with love.
Gah! Blurred up again.
It is lovely–a treasure for generations!
What a lovely present for her from all of you!
10:58 P.M. and I just finished reading this post! I started it this morning, fell back asleep, then had to get ready and run out to work (work sure cuts into your free time). Off and on throughout the day I tried to finish it, but the Universe kept interrupting me with different stuff. The upshot of all of this? I got to savor a wonderful, wonderful story about friendship, caring, knitting, team spirit and the suspence of a log cabin blanket (most beloved pattern) finished with hours to spare. Truly MDK, truly amazing!
Thanks for such a fun ride!
Happy Birthday Diana!
So many things to love about this (oh, the colors!), but as a beginning log cabin knitter (two blocks in), I’m thrilled to see that even the most “perfect” blocks aren’t actually perfect. I’ve been stressing about getting all my joins and edges to come out evenly, and (although my technique IS improving) this inspires me to just keep knitting, and to see that the results are wonderful even when they’re not “perfect.” Next up: stripes!
The healing power of garter stitch!
Di- you and your milestone birthday are famous! What a beautiful expression of love.
The colors remind of those candies you can get in a bag in the UK. Are they called liquorice all sorts?
Yes! We also think they are reminiscent of Lilly Pulitzer fabrics with the pink, green and white all over the place.
Truly lovely story.
I love this story! And I love the blanket – such great colors!
Wonderful blanket. Knitting friends are the best.
When you picked up stitches for the bind off, do you pick up the bumps or the valleys?
I used to pick up in the valleys, but now I pick up in the bumps because it’s so much easier to pick up the correct number that way.
Such great stuff! What a tremendous hug that blanket is from your friends! Happy birthday Diana!
When you helped pick out the yarn for this, had you by any chance been to the gorgeous, hilarious Florine Stettheimer show at the Jewish Museum? I’d finally caught it on the last day, right before you posted the blanket, and all I could think of was: Florine would have loved these colors. She was certainly the Maira Kalman of her day.
Very sweet and instructional at the same time!
Happy birthday, Diana! Did you cry, just a little? What a great gift!
And Kay, did you have any gauge issues? We did a baby blanket project. I learned that you can always block a square bigger, but if the sqare is too big…you can’t really make it smaller.
PS: They played into your hands, or you played into theirs? I think there’s some mutual playing going on!
What a wonderful gift! I love a story with a happy ending – and beginning, and middle…..
A lovely story about a wonderful group of girlfriends! Happy Birthday, Diana! And Congratulations, Klatch & Kay!
OH thank you for sharing this lovely story and making my dreary,rainy Saturday morning so sweet. Sending this on to a non knitting friend to spread the joy!
I learned by watching you tube videos. Change the play setting to a slower speed and it’s much easier to follow.