Many months ago I heard from a co-worker that His son was to have a son of his own. I got started on a knitted baby blanket to welcome this coming little one. That day I had to go to a local yarn store for something else and saw a light blue-grey yarn called “velvet”. I knew that this was the yarn that would be perfect for this project!
I had plenty of time… therefore it got set aside many times over the course of all this “time” that I though I had. The first time I started the blanket (my usual starts are 4 but 6 is my limit) I had used the size of knitting needles that the yarn sleeve suggested. Because of the yarn being velvety it would hold itself in a way that made the stiches loose, uneven and in my eyes, ugly. I decided to start over with much smaller needles. I am really glad that I did. SO MUCH BETTER!
The lack of progress of this project wasn’t helped by the fact that I cast on WAY TOO MANY stiches to start and had to keep adding skeins to make it look balanced as a blanket. Eventually I got to the point that I stated loudly, “when I am finished with this skein of yarn, this blanket it done!” I actually finished knitting it at the end of December 2018, but didn’t post it as being a finished project in that year because of a special request by the grandpa.
When his son was little, he had a blanket that he loved beyond measure. It had a satin ribbon edging that he would rub between his fingers. Grandpa thought that it would be really wonderful if this blanket also had a satin edging and he requested it be more blue than the color of the yarn. Okie Dokey!!
I ended up taking this blanket to work to be able to actually be able to make progress, and progress I made! After one lunch hour I had nearly sewn the whole of the satin ribbon around the edge on one side of the blanket. I just used a tiny whip-type stitch, making sure to catch some of the yarn in each stitch. I was nearly to the end of the satin ribbon and noticed that there was no way that I was going to get all the way around the blanket with only one package. After work, I stopped into the fabric store and procured a second package.
After the second lunchtime I had finished one side of the first package of the satin ribbon and started on the second side of the blanket. I figured that I would get both sides down and then commence with the second package of ribbon. This was so I could more carefully match up the over lapping ends of the ribbon border.
In spite of the fact that I told Grandpa that baby could not be born until after I finished the blanket, baby Andrew Arrived on January 16th. Healthy and Hale and handsome. We are all glad he is here. And… the blanket is finally finished! Only 2 days late. I am getting faster!
That turned out lovely! I was wondering how that yarn was to work with.
Thank you! At first I used the suggested needle size that was on the yarn. I didn’t like how loose the stitches were. They looked sloppy and uneven. I dropped two needle sizes and was much happier with the results. Are you planning a project with this yarn? The recipient of this gift absolutely loves it! It had a super nice hand feel while knitting it. I’m pretty sure everyone in my office petted it at some point.