We recently found out that my brother and his wife are expecting their third boy this winter. That makes 5 grandson's for my parents (and 0 granddaughters). Let's just say that when we all get together there will be
lots of noise and
lots of activity!
My sister-in-law is a knitter. She could probably knit just about anything for her new baby that I might knit for her as a gift. Which means that I really had to get creative on this one. The tricky thing was that I wanted to start the gift before I knew that the baby was a boy. I got a little hint that the baby's room colors would be pink and brown if it were a girl or aqua and brown if it was a boy. So, I figured I would just start knitting something brown and add the gender specific color at the end.
I kettle dyed some really soft 50% alpaca / 50% wool worsted weight yarn (watch for it in the
shop soon) in a soft, muted brown. I must have overdyed that yarn 4 times to get the exact shade that I wanted. Brown is trickier than you might think. Who knew? I didn't worry about using superwash wool, as I am confident that my sister-in-law knows how to properly care for handknits.
I wanted to knit the baby a blanket. Believe it or not, I have never knit a baby blanket. I guess I just figured it would be totally boring and cost an arm and a leg to knit. The nice thing about a blanket, however, is that the baby can use it from the time it's a newborn all the way through it's childhood. A sweater or hat has a very limited lifespan for a baby, you know? They grow
so fast!
Finding the perfect pattern took me weeks. I figured a blanket pattern that was knit from the center out would be great, as I could just add a colored border at the end. And, I wanted the blanket to be really special as I envisioned it becoming a family heirloom (I can dream, right?). My first thought was to knit the gorgeous, lace blanket,
Undercover by Beata Jezek. For whatever reason, however, I had a lot of trouble with the pattern. After frogging it for the third time, I decided to try something a little less "involved". (Someday, when my kids are older, I will be able to sit and knit a lace blanket with no mistakes. Until then, I am better off sticking to patterns with less counting!) Then, I came across Sharon McMahon's
The Spiral Blanket of Awesome {Design Your Own}. It was perfect. I was a little worried that my yarn would be to plain for such a simple pattern. But, the kettle dyed brown had just enough variation to make it work. When I received the news that the baby was indeed a boy, I dyed up some aqua yarn for the border. The pattern calls for either a ruffle (for a girl) or garter stitch (for a boy). I wanted something a little
flashier, however, as the yarn was pretty mellow. I decided on a horseshoe lace like
this. It's pretty without being too feminine. Just right.
The funny thing about this pattern is that because it's knit in the round, it looks a bit like a giant hat as it's being knit. I can't tell you how many people looked at it quizzically then asked, "Is that a.....um...hat?" Like they were thinking something went terribly wrong and I had no idea how to knit. Funny. I can't wait to finish it up and "open" it....like a flower blossoming! So cool.
