Nephew O's Blanket

Here is the final report on the blanket I made for Nephew O. for his first birthday last November.

I believe I mentioned before that this is the third time I've made this pattern - green, blue and now orange - one for each of the boy babies of my husband's siblings. It's made in pieces - 21 squares each of two patterns - then each square gets side edgings, the squares get sewn together into strips, the strips into a rectangle, the two end borders (with bobbles) are knitted then sewn on, and the two long side borders are knitted on.

As you may imagine, this makes for more than a few ends to weave in:

This is why this blanket was late. I just couldn't subdue all those ends quickly enough. But it was finally gifted to the deserving little guy last month.

It is a lot of work, but I'll probably make this pattern again. It's great portable knitting while working on the squares, and I think it's a great size for a kid's blanket. They don't stay very little for very long. Toward the end this time around, I was actually thinking of how to convert it into a double knitting pattern. Almost twice the knitting, but all the ends could just hide between the layers. That idea seems to have taken hold, and I think I'll have to follow through with it.

I bought three huge skeins of orange for this project (the cream was all in the stash already) and this is how much I had left at the end:

A very close call, but having made it twice before, I wasn't really worried. Not too much.

Yarn Along - 2011 Washcloths November Edition

Once again joining in Ginny's Yarn Along. Check out her blog for great projects and book ideas.

Here we are on the very last day of November. So I knit a washcloth today. Simple pattern of stockinette/reverse stockinette ridges knit from corner to corner. The pattern was on the back of a Sugar 'n Cream ball band from quite some time ago. I've lost the ball band for this particular skein of S'nC, so I don't know the color name.

The book is Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford. I'm not very far into this book, because it's my nursing reading, and nursing is happening less and less. The book is about the importance of skilled manual labor and how it really takes much more mental work than our culture usually gives it credit for needing.

I almost finished the big blanket in time for Nephew O's first birthday. There are just more ends to weave in. I gave myself a whole week to weave in ends and I still couldn't make it. So I'll be finishing that up and posting about it soon, then I must dive headfirst into the Christmas stockings. December starts tomorrow, and I have three more stockings to make!

Blanket Update

Assembly has begun!

Still on schedule.

Blanket Update

I've been working on the birthday blanket for Nephew O nearly every day for a while now. I've finished all 42 of the squares and have started putting the side borders on them (the ones on the left in the picture have their edging already, those in the drawer don't yet). I've been doing really well so far with staying on schedule with this project. I'm actually several days ahead right now.

I don't have a lot more to say about this project, really. It's the third time through a pattern that is pretty full of repetition all by itself. I enjoy it well enough, but don't have a lot new to say.

Yarn Along

This week I started the blanket I'll be giving Nephew O for his first birthday. This is the same pattern I've for used both previous nephews on this branch of the family, just a new color. It's the "Tell Me a Story" Blanket from a Leisure Arts booklet called "Beautiful Baby." Previous blankets were green and cream and blue and cream. Now it's orange and cream. It took a bit of looking, but I think I've found an orange that doesn't make make me think of a creamsicle. If I make one section of this blanket every day until Nephew O's birthday, it should be on time.

The book is one I've been reading bit by bit over the last year. Your Baby's First Year Week by Week, by Glade B. Curtis, M.D., M.P.H. and Judith Schuler, M.S., was sent to me for free by my health care company after the first pregnancy-related claim was made. It's not my favorite baby info book, but it has contributed some good ideas and made itself useful. So hard to believe we're already in the last week!

So far so good, joining in on Ginny's Yarn Along!