a blanket for Emily

If you’re looking for the May post for 2013: The Year of the Finished Project, it’s over here.

As you may know from this post, my eldest niece (my sister’s eldest daughter) had her first baby on 23 April. Being just two days before my own birthday, you could say she was an early birthday present.

This is the same baby I made the Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt for (because it is her mama’s favourite childhood story).

But I’ve gone a little less bright and a little more “pretty” for her baby blanket.

I didn’t start the blanket until the day after she was born, and then I ripped it out (too wide and wrong colour combination) and started again two days later. It’s not that I didn’t know she was coming, of course. It’s just that I didn’t know she would be a girl (although I had a feeling she might be!)

I was also being true to my own rules – no new knitting projects until others were finished – but a new baby is exceptional! They don’t come along in my family every day!

I have not been in the mood for knitting between saying goodbye to DD and the Grandsons, being sick, and working over at the “renovator’s delight” (henceforth known as “RD” -- there will be a post soon, I promise)!

But there’s nothing like a new baby to bring out all those craft-y tendencies!

I looked through my stash and decided to use up my Fiddle De Dee cotton (by Cleckheaton, sadly discontinued) because it’s a heavier weight (10ply/Aran/worsted) than the other cotton in my stash (we’re coming in to winter) and, more importantly, it’s machine washable and dryable! I don’t know that my niece knows such a thing as hand-washing exists! It knits up very softly although, being cotton, is quite hard on the hands when knitting for extended periods. I only had small amounts of each of four colour-ways, three skeins (150g) of lemon, and six skeins (300g) each of mint, a lemon/blue/white variegated yarn and an lemon/mint/pink/white variegated yarn.

The right combination and the right pattern were going to be important so an entrelac blanket it must be (hi Cindy! LOL). My first choice was to use the two variegated yarns but I didn’t like the combination so I settled on the mint and pink variation (of course! LOL)

Anyway, I hope to see Emily next weekend and wish her mama “happy mother’s day” for the first time. But I doubt I’ll have the blanket finished. This is where I was up to on Saturday afternoon; I’ve done part of the next tier since then!.

(Thanks Diane for the photo taken by iPhone during our workshop on Saturday)

If I had time to knit all day I might have got it done …

But there’s no way that was going to happen!

It will be sweet when it is, don't you think?

Linking up with Barbara at Cat Patches for the New FO challenge (on the last possible day!).

Does gauge matter?

Answer: It depends on what one is knitting!

I have not knitted a garment for myself in a very long time. I know I knit to a loose tension (gauge) but this might be a little too loose!

I got 18.5 stitches to 10cm, the pattern calls for 24 stitches.

If I had just gone ahead and knitted this cardigan, the first time I washed it I would have a cardigan for a silverback gorilla! The yarn is 50% cotton/acrylic blend so the actual yarn shouldn't stretch too much (don't worry, I'll do a test wash before committing to a whole cardigan) but a difference of 5.5 stitches over 10cm will be a massive difference on my XL frame!

Obviously my retirement from paid work and being an empty-nester combined with a renewing of my commitment to my God (resulting in a revived spiritual life) has made me very relaxed indeed!

Posted from the Blogger app on my iPad using a photo taken with the iPad

yarn acquisition

DD and I were discussing baby blankets. She mentioned how much she had loved the one I had knitted for my neighbour whose son was born in February.

It was knitted in Cleckheaton Fiddle De Dee cotton which is now a discontinued yarn. She really liked that blanket. It was soft and machine washable and dryable [which is very rare for cotton in my experience].

So, what's a mother [first time grandmother] to do? Look on Ebay of course. There have been several occasions where I have tried to find this particular yarn with no luck at all. But two weeks ago, I found some! In fact, I found quite a lot! And I bought a lot!! Here are the latest additions to my stash. Most of this is destined to become baby blankets. The rest will wait until I find out what it wants to be! The photos are copied from Ebay [thanks Rhonda and Amanda]. You will see more photos when the yarn is actually knitted!

Six balls of the same yarn as above. That's enough for a small blanket for pram or bassinet.


Six balls of mint:


Six balls of a pale lemon, pink and white variegated yarn:


20 balls of a pastel variegated yarn [including pink] - surely someone will have girl at some stage!


and 23 balls of lemon [a safe colour when mother2B doesn't know what her baby's sex will be]


I also bought ten balls of white but have no photo to show you. That's 71 balls altogether!! Can you tell I love this yarn!

In addition, I bought six balls of mauve Super Soft cotton


and ten balls of Sirdan Cotton Lustre in a lovely teal colour.


I already had ten balls of Spotlight 8ply cotton in blue [blanket in progress] and some balls of white cotton in both 4ply and 8ply so I think I have enough cotton to keep me going for a while.

Baby blanket knitting finished

My next door neighbour, who doesn't even know I have a blog let alone read it, is expecting her first child in February. I bought 500g of Cleckheaton Fiddle De Dee cotton [white/blue/mint/lemon colourway] while I was in Wangaratta in July. A couple of years ago my parents gave me this book for Christmas. I found a pattern I thought would work with the yarn and modified it for my needs.

It was a beginners' lace pattern so it was monotonous and as the blanket got larger and heavier, the knitting became more unwieldy, even though I was using circular needles and all the weight was either in my lap or on the lounge [couch, sofa] beside me. The 6mm needles [US size 10] were hard to use for long periods too. However, it was a pretty fast knit - each 50g skein did about three pattern repeats [24 rows] and I used just under nine skeins for the knitting and a little more than one skein for the crocheted border.

The knitting of my version is finished. It doesn't look like the afghan in the book but that doesn't matter. It was never my intention to duplicate the picture in the book; that would be impossible: my yarn is variegated and thicker. I'm looking forward to seeing how the pattern comes out after blocking.

Photos of my version after the blocking and the ends have been sewn in!