St. Valentine's Baby Blanket

Before Christmas last year Aimee commissioned me to knit a baby blanket for a friend. She came into my office with the color already in mind. Cranberry or whatever it's called. First step was buying the yarn. Over the lunch hour we got on the internet and started looking. I knew the blanket needed to be out of yarn that could be washed and dried by machine. Babies have a tendency to urp, pee, and do otherwise on their blankies so the blankets need to be able to withstand a lot of washings. I decided it was going to be either Encore or Wool-Ease. We first checked out the websites for the local yarn stores, then independent yarn stores on the internet, and finally ended up at Lion Brand Yarn's website so we could order the color Aimee wanted. It's called Burgundy and it's a beautiful color.

I started knitting the blankie in a lace pattern and determined that lace and the burgundy color didn't fit for a baby. I went back to Aimee and we conferred. She decided since the baby was going to be born in February how about hearts. Sounded fun.

First I had to find a graph for the hearts. I went to my favorite source, www.knittingpatterncentral.com, and under the categories of "various charts" found a perfect heart pattern for an embossed knitted blankie.

Then came the swatch to see how large each block would be. I knit the blankie on size 9 needles so the knitted fabric isn't too dense and heavy. Liked what I saw, so started knitting. Well, because it was a large chart I kept losing my place so ...

Off to Knit Picks to order their chart holder. Perfect. Between the chart holder and my row counter I was in business. Love the chart holder. Saved my eyes and my sanity.

As many of you know, I do a lot of knitting while we travel between Bellevue and Edgar's Acres, and in the winter it's a very dark trip. For Christmas David gave me a travel light that I wear around my neck, which makes for a very happy knitter (and a nonexistent "back seat driver" which makes David happy).

These aren't easy to find, but this was ordered from Patternworks. I don't use the magnifiers (at least not yet), but sure have used the lamp. It works great on the bus commute to and from work in the dark winter months.
This blankie was a lot of knitting, but once I had the tools to help, it was a lot of fun to do. I'm really pleased with the way it came out.

And so was Aimee. It washed and dried beautifully and the little baby girl will be wrapped up in a lot of love.

Thanks Aimee for letting me be creative in my design.

Well, we have 15 yards of garden soil being delivered so better get moving.

TTFN

Sue