Baby Blanket number 543

The last year seemed to be the year of the baby. My brother and sister-in-law had baby number four last fall. A good friend of mine (Kevin) and his partner had a baby, and two coworkers had babies in the last couple of months. And I made baby blankets for all of them. And all of them were a variation of a baby blanket pattern from the Stitch and Bitch book. I like the pattern--I wouldn't have used it if I didn't like it. But I began to get bored with it. And the blanket I made for my friend Kevin turned out more like a rug than a blanket, so I wanted to make him (and the baby) something better.

I tried a couple of different patterns and I struggled with all of them. They were the most complex things I had tried and I couldn't get them to work. I decided all I could do was knit and purl and nothing more--no lace, no cables, nothing. I even found what looked like an easy pattern for a cable-knit blanket--it didn't work either. I gave up.

Then I began to read and practice. I got out the Stitch and Bitch book. I played with cables. And after two months or so of frustration--I figured it out.

And look what I made: A baby blanket with cables! The pattern? I made it up. And I even used math. Kind of.



This is a picture without a flash--it isn't this dark--the yarn is a much lighter blue, but taking it with a flash didn't show the detail as much.


Now, it isn't mistake-free. You may notice a four twist-cable followed by three-twist cable. Uh, they are all supposed to be four-twist cables, but I didn't notice until I got through the next cable. So, being the "perfectionist" I am, I decided to make it part of the pattern. I screwed up big a few other times and I had to pull out chunks of it, but I kept going. And I had hoped to create a kind of divider between cables, but it didn't work out the way I wanted. Like everything else, by the time I figured it out I wasn't willing to pull the stitches out. I have about an inch and a half left to go and I will be done--I hope to finish it this weekend.

This is a picture with the flash--just to give you the idea of the color:



I think this is the proudest I have ever been of something I have made. I think it is pretty. I was working on it in the airport on the way back from Milwaukee when the gate agent came running over. I was positive she was going to tell me I couldn't have pointy metal sticks connected by a cable (the needles, of course) on the plane. But, no. She came running over to tell me how gorgeous my blanket was. My grandma would be so proud.

It took me at least a month, I got frustrated, and I came close to not finishing it. It is far, far from perfect (I am concerned it might fall apart the first time it is washed). But look! I made cables!

Oh, and a totally unrelated note: I bought the reissue of Pylon's Gyrate (Gyrate+) and it is amazingly awesome. If you like Pylon, buy it, it is excellent. If you don't know who Pylon is, buy it--you won't regret it.