Baby Love

Another work colleague and friend of mine is expecting, and rather sooner than I was expecting (as if I had a say in the matter), so I had to knuckle down and try and get this finished ASAP. And that was today.

The Baby Love Blanket pattern is designed by Meg Hollar. It's sweet and simple, but a bit time-intensive. It's knit in sport-weight yarn on pretty small needles. I used size 3.25 (US3) needles. It took 10.5 balls of Knit Picks Shine Sport in a color called Wisteria -- a pretty pale purple. It's a 60/40 mix of cotton and rayon, so it has no give and isn't kind to the knitter with lapses in tension consistency. It can also cause a bit of hand strain. But, I love the beautiful shine on this yarn and the cool shading effects that happen when viewing the knit and purl panels from different angles. And, it's going to easier to care for than many of the other baby blankets I've made in the past year. I've already tossed it in the wash and dried it and it help up just fine.

It's a fairly simple pattern, all knitting and purling, with no shaping to speak of. The nature of the little heart motifs mean that the blanket is totally reversible. And after the first row or so, it's easily memorize-able, especially with the liberal use of stitch markers. I used different color stitch markers for the panels in which hearts were to appear, switching them out and re-position as I moved from row to row. I always forget how heavy cotton is. This is not a huge blanket (36"x36"), but toward the end, I was amazed at how much weight was pressing down on my lap. It should keep a squirmy little one quite contained. Now to box it up and get it delivered before the baby is.

A note on the color. This overcast day got away from me before I thought to take some pictures, so the pictures taken indoors make this blanket look way grayer than it is. While that's not a bad thing, the more purplish-looking image is the one that's closest to the true color. Maybe just a tad more vivid than real life.

Coming up, I'm going to be making a version of the Marius sweater (or  Mariusgenser), a design that was popular in the 1950s in Norway. We're planning to go skiing with my siblings and their families this next December, and I'm going to need something for the slopes. Or at least something to lounge around in après-ski.

I won't be using this exact pattern, but it is one from Sandnes, the company that owns it. And I've ordered Peer Gynt yarn too for that extra bit of authenticity. I had to get it from the UK -- couldn't figure out a source in the US. Traditional Marius sweaters are made in the colors of the Norwegian flag -- blue body, white stranded patterning, and red around the collar and joining the sleeves. I'm going to be making a version with black, white and gray. Because that's me. I have the pattern already, and although it's been translated from Norwegian, some of it is a little sketchy on the details. This is going to take some careful reading and planning.