Baby Things!
Ever since I started knitting, I've been hoping my friends would hurry up and have babies, so that I could make them cute tiny things. Well, FINALLY, in December I found out my friend Jaime (from high school) was expecting! I was back home in Illinois later that month, and got a little bit more scoop (due middle of may, they didn't know what they were having, decided to go with green for decor since Jeremy, her husband, didn't like the idea of yellow), and made up my mind to make a baby blanket and hat.I started the blanket in January. I was SO SURE I'd be finished by mid-May, which would give me plenty of time to mail out the presents before the baby was born. After deliberating, I went with the Pinwheel Blanket I have seen all over the internet, in Shine Sport, because cotton is washable and cool for summer. Six ball of green for the body, two balls of cream for the garter ruffle, no problem.
Then I remembered that I. Hate. Cotton. Ugh. It hurts my hands so much. And this blanket? It grows faster than you think. By the end, I was lucky to get two rows done in one night. TWO ROWS! Before I started that garter stitch ruffle, I had 740 stitches on a 60-inch size 4 circular that was very much under duress (enough that I broke the joins on not one, but TWO of my 60-inch Knit Picks cables). Six balls the green was not enough, either - I had to order three more midway through the project, and even that didn't give it that much extra diameter (I was getting less than 8 rows per ball of yarn by the end). I ruffled only once - bringing the stitch count to 1480 stitches. Originally I wanted to do two increase rows, but there was NO WAY 3000 stitches would fit on one of those cables.
Here is the blanket before I sent it through the washer and dryer:
Pattern: KnitList
Yarn: Knit Picks Shine Sport, Grass, 9 skeins, and Cream, 2 skeins
Needles: US 4
Project Timeline: 1/26/07 - 5/21/07
It shrunk up a little in its wash (one trip through the washer, in the dryer until it was damp, laid flat to finish drying), and while I didn't get another picture, it was a little cuter. The ruffle firmed up enough to not look so floppy, and it ended up being almost exactly 36" in diameter. Perfect for the little boy Jaime had on April 22nd named Cathan Jeremy (yes, that was three weeks early).
I also made a hat, somewhere in the middle of all the blanket nonsense (on a, I just want to finish a project, damn it, day, and decided I'd have to START something in order to FINISH something):
Pattern: Stitch n' Bitch
Yarn: Dale of Norway Stork, Light Green, 1 skein
Needles: US 7
Project Timeline: 4/14/07 (1 day!)
I mailed everything out last Wednesday via Priority Mail, so Jaime must have received the package by now. I hope she loves it.
The next friend who has a baby? Definitely getting the blanket from Stitch n' Bitch, which I love and is knit on US 8 needles - I don't care how much I have to pay for all that Koigu.
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