Baby Blanket or King-Sized Comforter?

Several months ago I started a baby blanket for my expecting cousing Angela.  I had a lot of baby yarns leftover from a project I hadn't finished years ago, and some plain white worsted weight Red Heart yarn that I got from Mollie when she was cleaning out her stash, so I decided to combine the two and make a simple striped garter stitch baby blanket.  I bought a set of size 13 circulars and set to work. 

 

My first cast on seemed a little too small after I had knitted a couple rows, so I tore it out and added more stitches.  Now is where the lesson begins.  The lesson is this:  Even if you are an experienced knitter (and dare I say talented), you can still make stupid mistakes.  I realized after five or ten rows that I had started a pretty wide blanket.  I figured I'd just keep going.  It seemed like too much work to rip it out again.  After a few more rows it was becoming more and more clear that I'd added WAY too many stitches, but by then it really did feel too late to start over.  So I kept knitting.

 

Eventually I had gone through all of the skeins of baby yarn I had in the house, and I had a very wide, stout rectangle.  I had to buy more yarn.  And more of the white Red Heart.  And I kept knitting.  For months.

 

In the end, I gave myself a bump on my right index finger that I can only guess is a ganglion cyst.  And I had a blanket that, if rotated 90 degrees, could be a bedspread.  I bound off and called it good.

 

 

I hope baby Jaxon likes it.  My baby seems to.

 

Nephew Vest #2

I finally got started on the second argyle sweater vest for the other two-year old nephew. Then I got on a roll and knitted and knitted and knitted, while at the same time spending a weekend watching all of season one of Downton Abbey, my new favorite show. One Sunday night, I looked down and realized I had gone several inches past the point where I should have stopped and decreased for the arm and neck holes.

(insert choice swear words here)

The god of knitting has taught me nothing if not patience and humility. I knew the only answer was to learn some good backing-up technique (known in knitting circles as "frogging," because you "rip it, rip it"). I do this all the time when I get to the end of a row and realize I've messed something up. But I've never frogged on this scale before. I've never torn out inches of work before.



To make things worse, I had already worked in all the ends from all those colorful diamonds. I learned the first time I did this vest that you can save yourself a lot of crazy mess anxiety with all those strands hanging off the back if you stop periodically and work them in. This does not come in handy when you have to rip it out. Not only is it more work I did for naught, but it made the ripping out process all knotty. Not fun.

But I did it anyway. I got really good visual instructions from knitty.com. Basically you pick a row you want to go back to, and then insert a needle into the right leg of every knit stitch all the way across your piece. Then you just start pulling out everything above it.

Baby Shae's Sweater

One of my many craft failures happened two years ago, when Baby Shae was born. You may remember I had been working diligently on "Mini Brynn's Sweater" before she arrived. Well, that girl grew quickly, and I was a slow crafter. Pretty soon she was too big for the sweater, and I quit at about 75% of the way through the project. Craft Fail. Now she's two, and I've finally gone back and made her a sweater.

This pattern is a much quicker knit. There's no lace, it's knit in all one piece from the top down, and there are no sleeves. Mollie bought the pattern, "In Threes" through Ravelry from Kelly Without A Net and lent it to me.

Since my gauge is always so wide, I used a size 7 circular needle (24 inch) rather than the recommended size 8/5mm needle. I followed the size 4T/5T pattern. The yarn is a Berroco Vintage blend (50% acrylic, 40% wool, 10% nylon) that claims to be machine washable. Care instructions: Machine wash inside out in cold water, gentle cycle. Lay flat to dry. I asked the folks at StevenBe for a machine washable yarn, but I didn't ask about the drying. I'm sure my sister's going to be really happy to hear that I gave her a sweater she can't throw in with the rest of the laundry.

Here's the preliminary product, before blocking. I made a mistake at one point. Apparently halfway across the back I reverted to stockinette, so my garter rows don't match up in the front. Embarrassing.

Here's the final product, after blocking and finishing.

I hope I'll get some pictures of the sweater being modeled soon!