Sunday, November 4, 2012

Baby Blanket and Booties Segment 1

I've mentioned them.  There was a picture somewhere showing the beginning.  It may have even looked like this picture! 


Yep, this is where I couldn't say enough nice things about Knit Picks, products, customer service....they are very awesome.  

I had gotten this far on the blanket and found that it was very stiff,  AND not big enough.  Cannot wrap a sweet baby or toddler in a small piece of cardboard, so I pulled it apart and used larger needles.  I went from a size 4.0mm (size 6 US) to a size 6.0mm (size 10 US).  It is almost a drastic size difference, but the blanket has plenty of movement now and baby will like it better than pretty cardboard.


I started this prior to working on the Breast Cancer Awareness Chickie Bags, worked on it during lunch time at work and put it down to work on Peter Pumpkin for the Eight Color Contest.


In order to keep the rainbow stripe continuity I had to undo my yarn and ended up playing with it on my arm to find the right place to start the  next ball of yarn.  Yarn is so much fun to play with!

Just to update, this is Knit Picks Chroma worsted weight "Prism".  It is 70% wool, 30% nylon.  Each ball is approx 198 yards.  I have mentioned before that it is a little pricey, but so worth it!  It's fun to work with, it's pretty, it's soft, it's fun to work with! Did I mention it's soft?  Soft like a bunny?  Yes, like a bunny!

I am almost ready to add the fourth ball of yarn and have a packet of five more waiting in the wings to see how many more I will need.  I'm hoping to have a little left over to make a hat to go with the blanket and the booties.  


The booties will be made out of the same type of yarn with one difference, it will be fingering yarn instead of worsted.  I'm a bit nervous about making the booties because I have never done a scale stitch before.  I was able to find one of those freebie books on Kindle that has excellent directions and pictures showing me exactly how.  I'll be doing a few test runs on extra waste yarns before using the good stuff.

I'm doing the blanket in my favorite Moss Stitch.  No pattern for the blanket itself or anything like that, I just really like the moss stitch.  

I highly recommend learning the Seed Stitch before doing the Moss Stitch.  It is the basis for the Moss Stitch.  Once you have the Seed Stitch down, the Moss just follows right along and makes perfect sense.

Here are the easy directions for both stitches.  YouTube has excellent videos as well.

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-knit-the-seed-stitch.html

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-knit-moss-stitch.html

The pattern for the booties is here: 

http://www.knitpicks.com/patterns/Crocodile_Stitch_Crochet_Baby_Booties__D11562220.html 

Give them all a try!

Until next time.....

4 comments:

  1. It looks wonderful! I can't knit to save my life so that stitch looks complicated to me lol.

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    1. Then I shall knit for both of us...or until you over come your fear of knitting and give it a try! It is actually easier than it looks :D

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  2. Oh my Carla that is sooo gorgeous.
    I love rainbow colours, and I am a texture obsessive, its got to be soft, plus I have fussy neck syndrome, so I test out all yarn potential by having to casually -pre purchase ,pressing it on to my neck,
    that is harder to do and look normal, than you'd think lol.
    I have recently started volunteering at a charity shop , and its donated yarn city in the back room, I can buy it if its out on the shop floor.
    My recent haul is enough discontinued super chunky wool to make a giant sweater, knitting is not my usual method but this time I am happy because i get to use my ridiculously Giant knitting needles, so its growing super fast :)
    I love the baby booties, I long to make some of those cute little things.
    keep updating the progress.

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    1. There is no way I could resist buying up ALL yarn if I were in that situation! I've had to really resist lately and go on a "yarn diet" so I can finish the project I have in mind before moving onward. Working where you work would probably break down the defenses and there would be yarn stuffed everywhere!

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