The Snowflake Throw

 Finally! I can blog again. I'm going to post the finished details of the Snowflake Throw today.

Pattern: Snowflake Throw by Mary Maxim
Made For: A Special Friend

Size: 48 by 54 inches.

Yarn: Big Twist Soft
Content: 100% Acrylic, Worsted Weight
Color: 5020 Dark Denim

Yarn: Big Twist Value (Solids)
Content: 100% Acrylic, Worsted Weight
Colors: 5001 White, 5018 Light Denim, 

Needles: Circular size US 8 (5.0 mm)

Started: June 13, 2025
Finished: December 22, 2025

Comment: Oh my gosh, I love this afghan! I love the colors and the yarn I used for it. I loved working on it. It was a wonderful, enjoyable, challenging project. I'm so glad I made it!

It took a lot longer to make than I thought it would, but so worth the effort. Actually it's more accurate to say it took me longer to get it blocked than I thought. I kept procrastinating, which put me in a not so good position when we got back from our trip to get it finished. Sewing those 5 seams took quite a bit of time!

This is a free Mary Maxim pattern called Snowflake Throw. It is 6 panels sewn together. 

There are 4 stranded-knit square charts. 

The 3 colors are varied from square to square giving lots of varieties of squares.

So I never got bored with making them.

Between the stranded squares are rows of seed stitch and bobble stitch patterned rectangles. They were knit in all three colors too.

Another thing that was a challenge with the stranded squares is that the fairisle bit is in the middle. I had to be careful I didn't leave holes where it started and ended.

The blankets recipient is very happy with it. I offered to line the back, which I had planned to do (even bought the fabric) because I wanted to protect the floats from getting fingers caught in them, but ran out of time. 

As it turns out, I didn't have any loose ones anyway because I wove the floats every 3 to 4 stitches. 

It was great fun watching my friend open the present. She was so surprised! I'd worked on it right in front of her several times. I stopped doing that when the panels were done.

I did not finish the mittens for my oldest daughter or the afghan for my youngest daughter. Sigh. I didn't get nearly as much knitting done on the trip as I'd hoped. First, I found out I get car sick if I knit in the car while it's moving (Rats and Phooey!). Then, about a third of the way into the trip I started having problems with real pain in my knees which made it hard for me to knit for some reason. I couldn't concentrate on it.

I will talk about the trip in my next post, but I did manage to accomplish repetitive stress injuries in both of my knees, though the right one is way worse. The doctor said it probably was caused by getting in and out of the car so often, because we did a lot of that every single day of the whole three weeks. My Prius, being a sporty car, is low to the ground so I have to push up more to get out of it. It's time like these that I wish we had a two story house. I would have much better knees if we did because I'd be used to going up and down the stairs all the time so they'd be a lot stronger.

I was advised to use ice packs and rest my knees until the swelling went down, and she referred me to a specialist who has yet to call me. I think the holidays slowed things down. I'll probably hear from them in the next week or two. In the meantime, trying to get ready for Christmas  was pure torture. My knees got in the way, plus being extremely stressed because I couldn't do the Christmas preparation I really wanted to do. I had to really scale down my expectations. I was relieved to get what I could done, and it all turned out fine anyway.

We didn't get the tree up until three days before Christmas. I don't think I would have even done that much but I'd bought new lights and we wanted to see them on the tree. So we put it up and put on the lights. That's it. I intended to get some ornaments up but just didn't have it in me.

The lights are pretty. A little more purple in real life.

Last week I caught a nasty flu bug going around and it was one of the worst flues I've ever had. It was extremely painful! Every joint in my body hurt so bad I could hardly move. I cried quite a bit the first night because it was so  unbearable. I can only take Tylenol, which didn't do squat, because I'm on blood thinners. So I suffered. I'm much better now. I hope you don't get it.

Our weather still has been weird. There was NO SNOW on Christmas. In fact, we were still getting temps in the 50's. Some of the plants I have in pots on the deck are still alive, and unbelievable amounts of rain! Good lord! I haven't seen rain like that since I lived in California! It melted all the snow on the mountains and we had flooding everywhere. Only one pass going to Seattle is open because there was so much flooding and mud avalanches. It was so sad seeing so many peoples homes flooded. I'm so glad I live on a hill.

It snowed the day after Christmas. We got a couple inches, then things warmed up and it all melted and still, the rain. Our ground is not frozen yet, which is probably a good thing under the circumstances. That will change. The cold will be moving in to the area in a couple days.

Live long and prosper. \\//