baby blanket

baby blanket (finished)

After a marathon knitting session the past week, I finished the baby blanket. (I used a pattern from the Purl Bee for the chevron baby blanket.) A lot of other things got put on hold so that it would be ready by the time I left town for Christmas because I didn’t want to mail something so precious (read: sort of expensive and time consuming).

Now that it’s over, I can’t believe I made it. I mean, I know I did because I spent many hours knitting it and I ran out of yarn six rows too soon two days before my trip and the nice people at Purl Soho made a skein of yarn materialize out of nowhere to help me and I sent out text updates like “10 rows left!” to anyone who would listen. But when I look at it now, I don’t think about that. I think, wow, that’s beautiful. And it’s even more beautiful wrapped around my perfect, perfect niece.

I’m not a very experienced knitter. Before this blanket I think I just knew how to knit and purl. I could knit or purl two together, and I could maybe increase a stitch or two after looking up how to do it on youtube. But for this baby blanket I learned two new stitches (kfb and ssk). And that was all it took to make a chevron stripe and the biggest thing I’ve ever knitted.

This is why I love taking risks on bigger projects. When I started, it seemed impossible. I messed up a few times, and just kept going. And going, and going, and going. And when it seemed like I would be doing these two stitches for the rest of my days, suddenly I was done.

And now I’m ready to move on to a bigger blanket, or a few new stitches. Who knows where it will take me or what I can make next. I wasn’t even sure I could do this one.

But now that I’m one blanket smarter, I would do a few things differently the next time around. It turns out I knit looser than this pattern really intended. This means that I ran out of yarn faster (I used Purl Soho’s super soft marino), and because this pattern used a whole skein for each color of stripes, I ran out of yarn before I was finished with each section. After this happened the first time, I left out a garter row of my last stripe for every color. This kept me from running out of yarn, but it means that my stripes are of varying sizes. As I’ve said before, I’m no perfectionist, so this was ok by me.

But if I were to make this blanket again, I’d make each color stripe only three garter rows instead of four, and I’d go ahead and buy an extra skein of white yarn from the get-go. So if you’re a loose knitter (which I know now that I am), I’d recommend those modifications. Another thing I learned about knitting loosely is that you’ll end up with a slightly bigger blanket than the pattern indicates. So if you leave out some rows, that would make up some of the difference.

But even with uneven stripes, I think it’s about one of the best things I’ve made. If only because I made it for my brand new niece.

You can see previous progress on the blanket at baby blanket, baby blanket progress (4 inches), baby blanket progress (a note to baby girl), baby blanket progress (11 inches), and baby blanket (a lot of inches).

(I chose this project and paid for the yarn on my own. I’m not affiliated with Purl Soho–I’m just a fan.)

baby blanket (a lot of inches)

We are two weeks until Christmas, and my niece is already born. I need to kick it up a notch.

I’m into the third section of this blanket, and it’s going pretty well. I’ve knitted past the ruler, so I’d guess I’m at maybe 21 inches or so?

I think I knit looser than the pattern, so I run out of yarn faster. This can be an issue because the instructions use up a whole skein for each color of stripes. So, I cheated. In the last stripe for the red, I left out two rows. It’s a little bit of a bummer because it’s such a nice big project and I of course want it to be just right–but also, probably, no one will notice but me. And it would also be a bummer to have to buy three to four new skeins of yarn just to finish one or two rows. So here we are. I bet the baby won’t mind. I’ll see how it goes for the rest of the colors, but I’ll probably do the same thing. If I had planned on it, I would make the middle stripe of each color the one that was a little bit too skinny.

I’ve been trying to knit a row here and there when I have time, but my favorite way to knit is to settle in with a TV show or movie and get to it for while. I was watching Orphan Black, and that was the only time I really messed up a row. I think I was paying a lot of attention to the show (it’s really cool!) and definitely not enough to counting stitches. To fix that row, I cast stitches on until I had the right amount again. And then I just kept going. And no I won’t tell you what color it’s in, so hopefully no one can find it.

Alright. Gotta get back to work.

You can see previous progress on the blanket at baby blanket, baby blanket progress (4 inches), baby blanket progress (a note to baby girl), and baby blanket progress (11 inches).

baby blanket progress (11 inches)

At about 11 inches, I am a little more than a quarter done with the baby blanket I’m making for my niece (pattern from the Purl Bee). I feel like I really turned a corner once I started a new color.

It’s gotten a little bit chillier here in New York, and it’s nice to think about this blanket keeping a little baby warm. This stage in a knitting project is nice because you can start to really see what the final product will be. But it’s also hard to know there’s so far to go. I like that the blanket is striped because I don’t get bored with one color and it makes it really easy to mark progress. One stripe done, two stripes done, and on and on until you have several stripes in several colors.

I think it’s coming out so lovely, and I can’t wait to keep going. Since colder nights are coming quickly, I am sure I can hunker down with a warm blanket and get more stripes done in no time. And I better hurry–the baby’s due date will be here before you know it!

You can see previous progress on the blanket at baby blanket, baby blanket progress (4 inches), and baby blanket progress (a note to baby girl).

baby blanket progress (a note to baby girl)

Baby Girl,

Twelve years ago today a Big Bad Thing happened. It will be years before your parents tell you about it and many more years before you’ll begin to understand it.

I hope you never experience anything like we did 12 years ago. But I can’t keep bad things from happening, I can’t keep your heart from being broken, I can’t keep you from pain.

I can promise that you are loved. Me and your Auntie and your grandparents and your parents and your cousins and people you haven’t even met yet all love you so much. And if a Big Bad Thing happens, and one day something will, I hope you hold on to that love. I hope you know that despite all the bad things, you are a good thing. And love is stronger than evil. And love will last.

So, Baby Girl, I hope when you wrap yourself up in this blanket, you also feel wrapped up in love.

Love, Aunt Rae

You can see my previous knitting progress here: baby blanket progress (4 inches). And I’ll write more on how it’s going later.

baby blanket progress (4 inches)

A while ago I started on the baby blanket I’m making for my niece. I am happy to say that I have made some progress. About four inches of progress!

I have finished the very first stripe of what will be many stripes of several colors. I still have a long way to go, but each row is getting easier and quicker already. I won’t kid you guys, my favorite part of any project is when it is finished and you can look at this cool thing you made.

But my next-favorite part is when you start to first see what it will become. I started with a bunch of yarn and some needles, but after several rows, I started a contrast color stripe and the Vs of the chevron started to appear. And it started to look like I was making a chevron striped baby blanket. I get this feeling when I sew or embroider, too. If you put enough pieces together or stitch enough stitches, there’s a moment you can start to see what the final image will look like. And it’s very exciting.

When I use a pattern like this, it helps me to print it out and mark off as I go. (I’m following the chevron baby blanket pattern from the Purl Bee.) Each time I finish a row, I mark a dot. And I use different color dots for different color yarn. You can also count, of course, but marking them down helps me stay on track easily. If I ever need to stop in the middle of a row, I mark down somewhere what I just finished. For example, I’ll write k10, if I just finished knitting 10 and am ready to go onto the next stitch after that. As long as I’m consistent in how I mark things off, I am able to stop and start without getting confused.

I’m thrilled with how this is looking, and I can’t wait to knit more. I was a little worried about learning two new stitches to make this blanket, but thanks to YouTube lessons and some practice it’s been going really well. More updates soon!

A few months ago we learned of the exciting announcement that my brother and his wife are expecting. And now I’ve promised my little baby niece a baby blanket. I am following the pattern for the chevron baby blanket from the Purl Bee, one of my favorite knitting/sewing blogs.

Continue reading “baby blanket”

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: