Well the mystery package has reached its destination, so here’s the Finished Project post!
Project Details:
Started: Way back in October of last year, in plenty of time to finish before the recipient baby was born.
Finished: February 27th, a good two months after the recipient baby was born. Don’t even ask. There’s another baby in the family due later this summer. I should probably start knitting now.
Project Name: Tweed Baby Blanket, mostly. I made it a little bigger, and of course it doesn’t look anything like the original since this one is knit in Startling Pepto Pink acrylic-cotton yarn.
Yarn: Cotton Ease in Startling Pepto Pink, from the stash. This is one of the older, now-discontinued colors. I can’t for the life of me figure out why they did this in favor of the insipid pastel neutral colors they have now. I love this yarn. I’m not ordinarily an acrylic fan, but this is just plain nice stuff. And it’s machine washable, a big plus when doing baby knitting. I love the look of the original yarn that the designer used, but what real-life new mom has time to hand wash a damned baby blanket?
Needles: Size 5mm, started on Denise interchangeables, finished on Knit Picks acrylics since I needed a really long one for the edging.
For: Baby Rowan Annabelle, my latest grand-niece. I realized that I never showed a photo of her.
Isn’t she adorable?
What I Learned: Once again, babies come faster than you think. Start knitting early. I made the center square a little larger than in the pattern, which gave me a finished blanket that was very good sized. I forgot to measure it before I sent it off, I’ll have her momma do it at some point.* The edging is just a feather and fan with an I-cord bind off, and I had to do a little math to figure out how many stitches to pick up around the edges. The original pattern called for 6 repeats of the feather and fan pattern on each edge, I did 7. My garter square was 86 garter ridges, and I picked up 128 stitches on each side. I think.
Here are a couple more photos.
That’s Sweet Pea, of course, standing in for baby Rowan. My verdict is that this one is a total success!
*Oh wait, I can measure that chair that the blanket is on. 49 inches across the diagonal. There you go.
Oh.My.God. That would be the blanket that never ends, right? But little Rowan will look even more adorable wrapped up in it.
Just lovely…I have to start knitting soon…all that garter stitch seems to go on forever…but I absolutely love this blanket!
You did a fabulous job…lucky AND adorable baby!
I absolutely love it (and so does Rowan)!!! I will get an action shot tonight and email it to you!
What a beautiful baby, who is very lucky to have you as her aunt. Big Pink is gorgeous and the perfect gift…
Yeah – the Big Pink looks fantastic. I hope you get a picture of your grand-niece swaddled in the blanket.
It is beautiful, and worth all the work. Your niece is an adorable girl. Looking forward to the action shot.
Call me crazy, but I want to knit one in those exact same colors. And that baby is WAY cute!
Big Pink is soooo beautiful…not only because it’s PINK but because of the pattern, especially the edging. I recently finished a basic baby blanket knit in the diagonal with garter stitch. It was such a long project, and so boring, that I often fell asleep with the needles dropping stitches as they fell into my lap. That’s one of the reasons it took me so long to get it done! But you, my friend, have persevered under extenuating circumstances (like work, trips with your beloved, etc.) and have come out victorious with the perfect baby blanket. Good for you!!!
OK. So what’s the next project? LOL
Big Pink is stunning! That is an heirloom present for one very lucky baby. I’m sure you popped a bottle of ‘something’ to toast it on it’s way-congratulations on a great job!
The way you photographed it on the sofa, Big Pink looks like a giant heart, which of course it is. 🙂
And baby Rowan Annabelle is absolutely adorable.
What a beautiful baby! OMG. And a beautiful pink blanket for her.
I am so not a pink person and yet…..that blanket is GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!!!! Can’t wait to see what color you do the next one in…you have started a tradition you know!
I simply love it! What a fabulous color!
And thanks so much for your compliments on my Percy shawl 🙂
She is adorable – and she’ll look marvelous wrapped in Big Pink!
Is it a coincidance that the baby will be wrapped in yarn, and named after yarn? I think not
What a gorgeous blanket for an adorable baby! Sweet Pea looks pretty cute wrapped up in it, too!
Delurking to tell you that Big Pink is absolutely lovely.
Great job on Big Pink. Baby Rowan will look so sweet wrapped up in it.
Absolutely lovely!
This will sound funny coming from me; however, I try to keep one generic baby blanket in progress at all times (not logged in as projects on Ravelry) for those pesky baby births…. 😉
I love some of the new baby acrylics because I recognize that a new mother has no spare time for hand washing. And I concur with the pastel color comment. YUK!
And lest I forget, Rowan is simply beautiful!
Very very pretty! I know it was endless repetitive knitting, but it has a great deal of impact when it is done!
Beautiful! And, so is the baby blanket! I’ve been knitting for months for the May grandbaby and then we found out that our other son and his wife are expecting in September! My needles are smokin’!