Thursday, January 20, 2011

California Here It Comes

My cousin's daughter, Railey (or should I say my second cousin) has always wanted to be a mommy. I was thrilled to hear that she was pregnant with her first child. 

I had been admiring this baby blanket on knitpicks.com and had been waiting for an excuse to make it. I made the blanket with knitpicks "comfy" pima cotton. It is a really soft yarn, and turned out nice and thick. I used a mattress stitch to sew it together. I even have yarn left over in order to make a few handtowels (hopefully). The pima cotton makes this a soft, machine-washable blanket. Since little Peyton lives in California (her daddy is a marine), the lightweight cotton is perfect for her.

I also love the quilted design of the piece. It made for easy knitting and was able to finish the blocks quickly. There was, however, one snag in the pattern. The "peony arrows" were not correct in the pattern. There was nothing in any notes about pattern errors, but when I made the arrow a complete 10 ridge rows, the block turned out way to big. I had to stop and play with it for awhile until I got it right. I ended up doing seven garter ridges so that the block wouldn't be too big and the rest of the pattern of the block didn't pull. With regard to the borders of each block, they want two garter ridges, but I did three. This way I was able to pick up stitches for the next round of color without too much pulling.

Now it is to be packaged up and sent off to Oceanside, California. Hopefully Railey will send a picture of Peyton and her new blanket for this blog entry.

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Sunday, January 9, 2011

Moderne Blanket for Moderne Baby



When I found out that my niece, Morgan was expecting her first baby, I couldn't wait to start brainstorming on a baby blanket for her. I loved the design and simplicity of the Modern Baby Blanket from Mason-Dixon Knitting and wanted to do it again. For some reason, the last three blankets I have done have been completely void of the pastel baby colors. I find that you have a much more creatively finished product when your not bound by pink, blue, yellow and green (just yellow and green when you don't know the sex of the baby).

It's funny what gives you inspiration when it comes to colors. I had been sitting at my desk looking at my sharpie markers and suddenly I had it. This is one of my favorite color combinations and Morgan liked it also. Trying to find these colors, however was a chore. I was always finding three colors, but lacking the last one, or the color scheme didn't suit my taste.


Last week, I found this Paton's wool yarn in the perfect color combination. I immediately sent a picture to Morgan and she gave me the thumbs up. I immediately filled my basket with three balls each of the colors. What was even better, the yarn was on sale!!!!! The day couldn't have been any better. Now time to cast on and make another Moderne Baby Blanket for little baby Alexandria Lea, born January 7 at 11:17 p.m.
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