Ready and Waiting

Ever since knitting has taken its place in my repertoire of craftiness, I've enjoyed the opportunity to make little bitty things for my little bitty people. For both Laddie and this baby, that has meant a blanket -- the quintessential baby project, no?

This time I opted for the Blue Blanket pattern by LondonLeo -- not only is it free, but it's also such a classic, understated design with its seed stitch border, garter rib, and hint of cabling. The pattern is so easy to memorize, and it was lovely to have a "mindless" project after finishing a far more complicated pattern! Perfect for homeschool sessions, movies, and just about any time my hands weren't occupied with something else. I knitted it up in Knit Picks Galileo yarn in the colorway "Luster," which I nabbed during a sale a few months ago. Galileo is a luxurious blend of Merino and bamboo that slides through your fingers like silk. I'm just a little bit in love with it. 

I did alter the pattern, in a very simple manner -- I cast on 181 stitches, and used 917 yards of yarn (instead of the recommended 133 stitches and 750ish yards the pattern calls for), because I wanted the blanket to be bigger. All this meant was that I had 8 extra repeats of the garter rib, and that it took a little longer to knit! Oh, and I used a slightly larger needle because I didn't have a long circular needle in the recommended size. After blocking my blanket was 34" by 36", which is just about the size I was hoping for. Of course, I discovered that I actually had an extra skein of Galileo after I had bound off and blocked the blanket... So now I get to figure out to do with 131 yards of extra yarn! Oops...

I calculated how many stitches I put into this blanket -- 45,612 (to be precise). Based on how long it took me to finish this project (about a month and a half), that equates to an average of just over 900 stitches per day. Does that mean I'm not a *real* knitter, though? I mean, do bona fide knitters count how many stitches are in a project, or is there some sort of noble ignorance of how much effort went into each knitted masterpiece? Hmm.

At any rate, I can't wait to wrap up our new arrival in his very own blanket -- once he decides to arrive, that is. It's hard to believe that he might be joining us in just a few weeks. We're ready and waiting, little fellow!

So much garter rib!

Raveled here.