Project time: A knitted blanket

During the winter, we decided that it would be a good idea to do something about our old red chair, or rather I should say Shasta's red chair.  We actually moved it out of our room for a while and replaced it with a brand new ottoman.  Alas, our fuzzy little creature of habit refused to sleep on it and instead decided our bed was the next best option.   After a few weeks of none of us sleeping very well, we moved the chair back into our room, puppy promptly moved back into it, and glorious sleep ensued.

But the chair was still ugly.

We toyed with the idea of sheets and other covers, but Steph found an online video that showed how you could knit a blanket using thick wool roving and knitting needles made out of PVC pipes.

So we decided we could do that too.

Steph spent a Saturday teaching me how to knit (on little needles) and we went in search of thick yarn.  Alas, after visiting every yarn seller in town, we couldn't find anything that fit the bill and wasn't too expensive, so we decided to make our own "yarn" out of felt:

Cutting the felt strips-hooray for rolling cutters!

So we ended up with a bazillion 1 inch strips of felt that then needed to be sewn together.

Steph is much better at sewing the strips together than me.

When we were ready, we coiled all the felt into several bins and prepped our needles with duct tape and cardboard tips (the pictured ones are actually smaller diameter than the ones we ultimately used)

So with our materials prepped we set out to knit.  But
 knitting with little needles and knitting with PVC pipes are two completely different tasks.  You really can't do more than 3 or 4 rows before your arms feel like they've been set on fire.  Even so, we kept at it:

That's the smile that says "I can't feel my biceps anymore!"

As it got longer, Shasta started to test drive it.

Eventually, we finished it, though!

That thing is toasty too, let me tell you!

Novel means of transporting the finished blanket.

The suspense was killing Shasta...

So we brought it upstairs with unbridled enthusiasm,  put it on the chair and...

It looked like a cargo net on a really ugly shipping crate.

Fortunately, with the application of a white sheet underneath we cut down on the "net to capture wild animal" look and reached a "textured" look

That's the ottoman we bought in front of it.  The dog ended up with the equivalent of a twin bed.  And yes, she knows she's spoiled ;)

Most importantly, though, the dog will sleep in the chair (which means we can all sleep at night) and it no longer looks like the monster chair in the corner is going to eat you.

"Guys-you know I shed black hair right?"
(Oh yes, which is why we now have a gray blanket, but, eh, it works)