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Wednesday, June 12, 2013

It's a baby blanket!

I've never really had the urge to knit a baby blanket.  In face, I've said countless times that knitting a blanket wasn't something that ever really appealed to me.  I know that sounds a little harsh, but it's true. I just never got the urge to knit one.  Then along came every knitter I currently know and it just seemed like they were all knitting blankets.  Some were knitting larger blankets and others knitting baby blankets.  I thought, I can do this!  I'm going to knit a baby blanket for my newest nephew!


You might be thinking that this was the first opportunity I've had to knit a baby blanket.  You'd be wrong, but I love you for thinking that all the same.  This blanket is slated for my youngest nephew aka my brother's third child.  Yup, babies #1 & #2 came and went without receiving a hand knit blanket.  I was knitting then, but I wasn't knitting like I am now or at least not like I've been knitting in the last three years.  It's a pretty bad excuse, but my excuse nonetheless.  I did knit baby #2 a cardigan and both babies #1 & #2 hats for Christmas gifts.  That's something at least!

The pattern I knit was the knitted pattern featured in Mollie Makes Issue #22 called Summer Sky Blanket by Nikki Van de Car.  I didn't realize this about the patterns in Mollie Makes, but all the patterns featured in the magazine are patterns from books.  Now, I knew that some of them were patterns from books, but I didn't realize that they all were.  I think that is a unique take on putting patterns in a magazine, but I digress.  In case you missed out on picking up this issues of Mollie Makes, this particular pattern comes from a book called What To Knit When You're Expecting.  On to the details....


The body of the blanket is all stockinette.  Which I simultaneously loved and hated.  I loved it for its simplicity and hated it because a blanket knit all in stockinette takes FOREVER.  Or it felt like it took me forever.  The border is then picked up and knit in what the patterns calls "rice stitch".  The rice stitch pattern is cute and reminds me of seed stitch, but with a twist.  The border knits up quick - each side is only 12 rows!  Loved knitting the border.


My blanket was knit using Blue Sky Alpacas Worsted Cotton in colors 632 (blue) for body and 619 (red) for border.  The body used a little under 3 skeins of yarn and I almost got away using one skein of yarn for the border.  I only needed the second skein to finish the very last row of border and then for the  final bind off.  Why blue & red? I picked blue & red in these particular shades because it's really close to the colors for KU, where my brother went to college.

This was my first time knitting with BSA's Worsted Cotton and I really enjoyed knitting with it.  It's a very nice cotton to knit with and what I recommend most at the store for baby blankets.  It also washes and dries well.  Oh! Needles!  I knit mine using Knitter's Pride Dreamz US 8/5.0 mm 32" circular needle.  Loved knitting with these needles & the worsted cotton.  I was a little worried that the cotton might not "move" as well on the wooden needles, but it was very smooth on the Dreamz.  Last but not least, here is the link to my Ravelry project page: Baby Blanket for nephew.



2 comments:

  1. I am working on this pattern and I have a quick question for you (if you don't mind)!

    For the body, it said to cast on 96 stitches, but when it comes to the ending I am supposed to pick up 97 stitches - am I supposed to add an extra stitch? Where should I do that? Thanks so much in advance!

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  2. Hi! Sorry for this late response. I think the most important part of picking up the stitches is to pick up enough stitches that your border doesn't buckle or cinch but not pick up too many stitches that it starts to ruffle or fan out. I think I was able pick up 96 or 97 for the top (shorter) sides, but ended up picking up a different number on the longer sides. I hope that helps some!

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