Baby Blanket

The baby blanket I knit for pregnant friend number 2 is probably my favorite project that I've knit so far - but the stiffness of the cotton yarn did a number on my tendinitis, so I'd never attempt it again. Well, at least not in that yarn.

It took me 5-6 weeks to knit. The yarn is three strands of 3/2 mercerized cotton. I switched out one strand more than once for the color striping. I pieced the pattern together - a 2" garter stitch border, my beloved leaf vine pattern (from Barbara G. Walker's Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns), and the rest is stockinette. I cast on 100 stitches, which wasn't enough for the yard width I was going for - it's close to 24 inches, not 36. Still, I'm pretty damn happy with it.





There are two more pics on my Flickr. I love the leaf vine pattern, and do intend to make some blanket squares in it at some point.

Yarn Combination Experimentation

After finishing the diaper bag for Mama J, I was ready to knit for another of the babies on the way. My mama friends told me that baby blankets are always useful and appreciated. Baby blanket it is, then.

Well, with so many pregnant friends, I decided that buying yarn in bulk was the way to go. So I bought 5 cones of 3/2 mercerized cotton with the intent of mixing colors into one nice tweeded result. (Mixing coned yarn was recommended by my knitting mentor, who combines strands of 2/14 cotton to make his socks).

I knit these swatches in December 2006:


Here are the three cones of 3/2 mercerized cotton and the swatches I knit on a #9 (larger swatch) and #10 (smaller swatch) needles.


I knit the swatches to check what size needle to use, and to figure out how many stitches I needed for a baby blanket... and then forgot to measure the swatch before I frogged it.

I also knit this swatch to try out a pattern for said blanket:


Pattern from Barbara G. Walker's Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns, using Valley Yarn's Berkshire Bulky 85% wool/15% alpaca in Lime.