have finally finished the baby blanket that I started a little over a month ago! Woo hoo!After my brother's lady's sister had a baby I knew I had to whip out a blanket for that little tyke! Since I knew I had to get the blanket to the family by June 24th I wanted something that would be fast but still nice. Being so new to knitting, I also knew that it would be kind of slow going for me and so I whipped out the Vogue Stitchionary: Volume 1 and set about finding an awesome stitch. After a few days deliberation I landed on the Moss stitch. It had already been in my head to use green yarn so this stitch was even more perfect because it matched the feel of the color.
Once the stitch had been chosen I set about picking out the yarn. I wanted to use something soft, but completely natural...no acrylic. With this in mind I set off for the Lion Brand Studio, hoping not to spend too much money but get a quality product. It wasn't hard for me to find what I was looking for! I fell madly in love with the Nature's Choice Organic Cotton. It was not only a perfect texture for a baby blanket (so, so soft), but it also came in such amazing colors! I chose the Pistachio and when I looked it up later on the Lion Brand page I saw that it was even more spectacular for this blanket because the description of the color is "medium moss green." Thus I set about to make my Mossy Baby Blanket!
I cast on 80 stitches which made the blanket about 22 inches across and I worked until the length was about 31. To make this size took about 3 and 1/2 skeins of the yarn, which only cost around $32. I used size 9 needles that were 14 inches long and while it did start to get heavy towards the end I had no problems wielding the knitting. I did run into a couple of snags, dropping stitches twice and then further wreaking havoc on the blanket in my botched attempts to fix my mistakes. As a newbie I am not quite equipped to handle these situations and that is where the lovely people at Lion Brand and a very knowledgeable co-worker came in to save the day! In the end I was only set back by a few days and finished in a pretty timely manner for someone so new at this. I didn't finish in time to block though, so the blanket is a bit windy, but I think that I will be forgiven.
Full Blanket:
Folded Over View:
Close Up Fold:
The Stitch Close Up:
Folded Up and Ready to Wrap:
Once the blanket was done it was time to wrap it! I was actually really excited about this because I wanted to make a label with care instructions and detailing what yarn had been used. I went ahead and got my supplies ready and went into action.
Wrapping Supplies:
I cut up some green card-stock to make the tag with. I wanted to decorate each side differently, but keep it simple enough to where they could keep the tag for future washing reference. Therefore I decided to use an orange pen (to match the yarn I used to tie the blanket with) to write out the information with (although I would recommend a fine point marker if you have it, just because it makes a deeper impression). For decoration I chose to use 3-d leaf stickers I had gotten at Hobby Lobby a while before for the front and on the back I glued some simple yellow flower confetti. I then punched a hole on the top of the tag to thread the yarn through.
Tag Side 1:
Tag Side 2:
Once this was done I simply tied the blanket up and attached the tag and I think it came out looking pretty cute (if I do say so myself)!
Finished and Wrapped:
I will be giving the blanket to its rightful owner very soon, with a small sample supply of Soak so that they can wash it before giving it to the baby (I wish I had had time to...but I guess at least this way I can introduce them to Soak). I hope that the baby finds it comfortable and the parents find it aesthetically pleasing, all I can say is that it was great fun to make and I like it (imperfections and all).
*cap supplied by Jessica Hische at DailyDropCap
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