What's been on my needles...

It's been a long long time since I've last shown off any knitting. There's a good reason for this: I dared go for a big project, a reasonably big blanket for my little niece (who still is still snug in her mummy's tummy, with Cubling now regularly saying "Baby raus/out" and "Baby warten"). It's taken me ages, six months or so, with only a brief interlude where I started another project (which got finished today but shall have to wait to get photographed). It's the first time I've done Afghan Squares and only my second baby blanket. The project grew on me: At the start, it took me a while to have the patience for it and even towards the end I was worried it wouldn't get finished in time. Each square was simple and took about two evenings to do - so trying to get a square done in that time kept me motivated. I changed the pattern (Building Blocks by Debbie Abrahams) to reduce the number of squares (taking off the outer row/column, a reduction from 36 to 25 squares) and used larger needles. Yes, I admit, I'm lazy. I also didn't follow any of the yarn recommendation, instead using a lot of odd balls in my stash which was fun getting the right mix and match for this project, straying away from the very pastelly original pattern.


I really like the result. A few things that could be better: there are two squares which aren't quite square and it's visible. Not sure how this happened but to be honest, it's not too bad, this is a blanket after all and can be slighly wavey. Also I used one yarn (the same that I used for baby hats, and I just love knitting with it, it's so soft, stretchy and slightly chunkier than comparable yarns - the hats knitted with it stretch from newborn to 2 1/2 years!) which is a bit chunkier than the others and as a consequence those squares are a tad bigger. Finally, although I tried to make sure all yarns were machine washable, I made a mistake when buying additonal yarns towards the end. Somehow, two balls of no machine wash yarns made it into the basket and they were too lovely not to use.


So, it's a hand wash only blanket. For once, I'm happy with my choice of colours. I'm really rather pleased with this blanket - and so is Cubling who wouldn't let me take a photo without trying to snuggle into it - it's been knitted with lots of love for what is to be a very special little girl. So my little niece, now that you'll be snug and cosy with this blanket, how about you came along tonight or tomorrow? Ah go on. We're all ready for you and there's currently 7 pairs of arms in this house ready to welcome you.