It's a blanket baby

The log cabin baby blanket is finally finished! I seamed up the last corner of the border last Thursday evening. The yarn is part acrylic, so I couldn't do a proper blocking, but I did run it through the washer and lay it flat to dry in an attempt to even out any wonky stitches.


uh, dear, was there no other place to put your jeans after taking them off?


much better

Here's the details for ya:
Pattern: Log Cabin Blanket from Mason-Dixon Knitting, sized smaller for a baby
Yarn: Plymouth Encore worsted in 4 different colors; 2 balls of each color, though I only used a small bit from each of the second balls
Needles: 32" US size 8 circular
Started: first week of September 2007
Finished: 10/25/07
Modifications: The biggest change I made to the basic log cabin pattern in the book is the stitch pattern. I do not like garter stitch. Not only am I not fond of the way it looks, I also don't like knitting row after row after row. I need purl rows to break up the monotony for both my mind and my hands. So, for each strip, I worked the first 10 rows in stockinette and the last 8 rows in garter. The center square is all garter. This gave the fabric a interesting texture that varies from smooth to bumpy with the change of each color.



The picture frame border was worked as described in the book.
Notes: I had some serious doubts about the colors the whole time I worked on this. My intention was to use purples and greens, but the day that I was at the LYS looking for yarn, they didn't have the colors I wanted in the right yarn. I had decided a while ago that I wanted to use Encore--it's soft, warm, and machine-washable. Since there weren't any purples and greens available that matched tonally, I started picking up colors that I liked and looking for matching yarns. These 4 are the ones I ended up with.



They aren't exactly baby colors. However, I hate pastels, and just couldn't see spending the time and effort on something in colors that I can't stand. My SIL doesn't like pastels much either, so I thought she's appreciate something a little different. Still, I was apprehensive, but kept knitting. The knitting itself was simple enough. Picking up the stitches was probably the most tedious part of the project. I also didn't like that each strip was longer than the previous one. Starting at the middle, I scooted along at a very nice pace to start. The longer I worked on it, the bigger the blanket got and the slower my progress. I'm not sure if I'd ever make another one like this, especially if I wanted a full-size afghan. I fear I would never finish.

Great thing is that Christy seemed to really like it:



And, as an added bonus, the colors perfectly match the crib bedding set that she picked out. When she opened my gift at the shower we had for her on Saturday, several people there said "Oh look, they're Christy colors!" So, I guess my color choices were spot on. Go figure.