I settled on a pattern for this emergency baby blanket I need to get done by Saturday, a problem of my own making that I wrote about at the end of my post yesterday.
I chose a stitch pattern – Dragon Skin from Walker’s 2nd treasury – and dove right in with a garter stitch border on the bottom edge, 1×1 ribbing on the side edges. After almost finishing a repeat of the pattern, I got lost in the instructions; not sure which row I was on or where I was in the row, I wished there was a chart for the pattern. “Eff this!” I thought, “I hate written instructions for complex rows!” So I made a chart using an old version of Adobe Illustrator, which you can see in my progress picture. I modified the pattern some; this is technically one and a half repeats of the pattern and I also tweaked a few other minor things.
I haven’t decided whether or not I like the resulting fabric – I kind of wish I’d chosen solid yarns instead of variegated. I’m knitting with 3 strands of Bernat Handicrafter cotton held together; one white, one Anchors Away Ombre, and one Reflection Ombre. All the color changes detract from the pattern, IMO – I wish the color repeats were longer so it looked more stripey. At least it’s not pooling weirdly (yet).
I’m also bothered by the contrast between the white and the dark blue in both of the variegated yarns, it makes the fabric look like static on a TV to me. (Do modern TVs even show static or are they all blue screens these days? I’m probably dating myself here.) Maybe I’ll dye it after I finish knitting it to cut down on the contrast. I did that with another skein of Bernat Handicrafter when I made Yet Another Baby Blanket.
We’ll see what shakes out today – for now, I’m going to stick to the plan and ignore all my misgivings.
Little Golden Notebook 
You are truly brave for attempting to knit a blanket before Saturday! I like the colors of the blanket; however am in love with the dye job you did on your other blanket. It makes it look so rich! Whatever you decide, I’m sure it will turn out beautiful!
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Thanks Paula! I’m pretty sure I’ll get it done, especially if I don’t rip it all out and start over again. 😜
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Tricky decision. Both are lovely, and your friend will love any handmade gift, right? I can picture the same, but blue, looking really stunning.
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That’s what I keep telling myself – she’ll be happy to have another handmade blanket and won’t see any of the things I do that are wrong or could be better.
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Absolutely. It’s a special thing. I’m happy if someone cooks me a meal! A handmade blanket would send me overboard. I doubt I am alone in that.
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Anyone who makes me a meal has my eternal gratefulness. And you definitely qualify as someone knit-worthy; a surprisingly small number of people value it.
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How nice! Probably a generational thing. My mum, nan and aunts knitted for us. One aunt I barely knew (she lived in Ireland) made the most amazing arans. Very popular in the 1980s! Particularly with my nan, even if I wasn’t too keen on the end product I think I appreciated the love and time that went into it. My mum got asked to make the stuff I really wanted (again, 1980s, the age of knitwear), and she always delivered!
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I’m not sure it’s generational, or if it is, it can be passed on. My niece seems to have picked it up from my sister, who can’t knit herself but treasures everything I’ve made for her. I made my niece a baby blanket (designed the pattern & all) and she loved it! I think now that The baby is now a toddler, she still uses the blanket.
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But the appreciation is there? That is what I meant as generational (sorry, I am a bit brain-drained at the moment and struggling to be coherent). If you are brought up to appreciate handmade items/gifts then I think it almost always sticks with you.
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I think we mean the same thing/agree; it’s all good. 🙂
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I actually really like the contrast — I think it’s a lot of fun (maybe partly because, when I was young, I had a weird love of watching TV static!!) Good luck on getting it done ahead of your deadline!
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Thank you! We’ll see how it all works out! So far I’ve been able to ignore everything that I think is wrong with it. And I think it’s too late to frog back now anyway. I’m glad to hear you like the colors; I used to stare at the static too, willing our TV antenna to tune into a particular station that we rarely got. It never worked even though I imagined it had a few times. 🙂
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I like the current color but the “curious” side of me would love to see how it would turn out dyed… (would you dye it after it was finished or dye the yarn first??? if you do dye it please post the results)
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I’d have to dye it after it’s finished and I’ll definitely post if I do, but I’m not sure I’ll have time (or the inclination) to dye it. Having a finished blanket by 11:30 on Saturday is the goal, everything else is gravy, including my usual need for “perfection” – it just has to be good enough, not perfect.
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Good luck… what a wonderful gift (I am assuming that is what it will be)
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Yup – it’s a gift for a friend having her second baby. I designed & knit a blanket for her first and have procrastinated too long with this one waiting for inspiration to strike to make a “normal” blanket – quick and dirty it is. 🙂
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