Even though I had start this twice and it gave me some trouble towards the end, this is the most beautiful thing I have made yet.

Once I frogged back my first attempt after several mistakes of not being careful, it went extremely well through the knitting. I flew through the pattern doing up to line 55 of Jared’s chart (or 101 in the Extended/normal chart). I love the colour though the Cascade 220 dye can run quite a bit in the wash.

When I hit the bind off row, my troubles began as I realised that I did not have enough yarn. I had to buy more yarn, but I could not rip back to add a repeat because I had placed my life line way too far down. That discouraged me quite a bit because I thought I had enough yarn by going down a needle size and not doing the repeat. I accidentally broke the Emily Ocker cast on when I was weaving in, but I fixed it so it is not too troublesome. I did not enjoy the blocking too much, and only stretched it 9 inches.

The camera does not capture the colour adequately; it is very lovely turquoise aptly named Caribbean. The edge/BO rnd was difficult to block and looks a bit unkempt, so I avoided taking photos of it. I may iron the edges lightly at some point. As usual, I blocked with a bath of Eucalan Lavender.

Hemlock Ring Blanket, started May 19th 2008, finished June 13th 2008
Pattern: Hemlock Ring Blanket adapted by Jared Flood
Size: 45″ blocked. 36″ unblocked.
Yarn: Cascade 220 Wool – #8907 Caribbean – 100g/220 yards – 3.1 skeins
Needles: US#9/5.5mm 40″/100cm bamboo circs with magic loop

Modifications: Emily Ocker Cast On, I often ssk instead of sl1k1psso, and with the BO rnd I k2tog, O, ssk.
Tools/Notions: Stitch markers, lifelines, and row counter are all necessary.
Lessons Learned: Emily Ocker Cast on.
Cost of Project: approx. $28
Would I knit it again? Yes! I would make it bigger. I would love to make this in Cascade Eco wool. It is not sold widely in Canada, but one day though.

Helpful Links and Tips: I used The Rainey Sisters‘s PDF of the pattern as it is updated with the errata and uses ssk. It uses Jared’s chart, and additionally, I paired it with the Hemlock Ring Knit Along Yahoo Group‘s Extended Chart which has helpful numbers of YOs and stitch counts (though there is a small error in the one I got). Being a member of Ravelry’s Hemlock Ring Doily Throw Knitters group also gave reassurance.