Baby Blanket love

Interweave Knits 2016

I promised I would post two posts on completed knits back to back, and I failed. Oh well. As I sat here on my day off drinking tea early in the morning, I remembered I had to post about the baby blanket I recently finished. I have knitting on the brain in a BIG way, as this past weekend I finally figured out what I am knitting the girls for their Christmas. It is hard to plan that far ahead (at least for me), and it interrupted (gratefully?) a project I was working on already. I'm knitting a Calder Pullover and only have one sleeve left. Only thing is, I just checked and I started it last December. If I am lucky I will finish it THIS December, making it the longest ever worked on sweater. I only have 3/4 of a sleeve left too! I don't know why I hate the sleeves so much, but I do. I did the first, then the body, and thought I was done (you are supposed to do the two sleeves first but I didn't have it in me). Anyway, I will get there.

Part of what distracted me was knitting a baby blanket for my co-worker Brent. He was my trainee at one point, and I like him. He and his wife are having their first baby, due in December. I knit them a Mosaic Blanket from Purl Soho. I had wanted to knit one ever since it popped up in my inbox, and this gave me a great excuse. The only thing I did differently than the pattern was the crochet shell stitch around the border.

I love this blanket a lot. It was fun to knit, the result is impressive (at least to me!), and it turned out a great size. I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease (cream) and Caron Cakes (rainbow) for the yarn. Easy to wash, with just a bit of wool for a winter baby. Plus, I got to use my coupons that Joann's shoves down my phone every week. What with the free pattern, it was a very affordable blanket to knit.

Now I've just found out my niece is pregnant and due in May, so I get a chance to knit another blanket I'm excited about. I won't cast on until well after the new year, because I have 2 Christmas sweaters to knit for my girls, and two sweater WIP's of my own. We will ignore the hat languishing in my basket because it was just for fun and there is no deadline.

The last thing I completed that I had put off for ages was recovering my desk chair. It has a mysterious stain on it, and that chair is older than my kids, so here is before and after:

Thanks for stopping by, have a great day!