Pickets Baby Blanket

Yes, it has been a long time since I posted.  I have been knitting, but I haven't been knit-blogging.  I'll catch up.  I think I'll start with the biggest project I've been working on and have just finished.

A young couple at our church was expecting a baby, and I decided to knit a blanket.  We knew she was a she, so pink came to mind, but I worried I would get bored too soon to finish it.  The mother and I share the Emmaus experience in common, and a rainbow seemed a great way to portray that connection and to remind the family of God's promises.  The day after I decided to knit in rainbow colors, I found the Picket baby blanket pattern on Knitpicks.  It seemed perfect.

Each stripe is knit separately and then sewn together.  The knitting went rather fast -- it makes a great portable project, since it is knit in stripes.  I discovered, though, that I hate HATE seaming.  It is not portable, and I am not good at it. 

Last weekend, I made myself spend several hours finishing it so that I could give it to the family before the (now born) baby girl went to college.

Pattern:  Pickets baby blanket from Knitpicks.  Knitpicks no longer carries all of the yarn called for in the pattern.  I substituted bark for merlot heather, peapod for lemongrass heather, and bought the suggested moss to substitute for pampas heather.  The pattern calls for 11 stripes.  I ended up with 10 because I just do not like the moss at all. 

Needles:  US size 5, circular needles from Knitpicks.  My row gauge was very much off, but I think this is a pattern problem.  I do knit loosely, but each stripe calls for 248 rows to create a stripe (without the points) that is 34 inches long from point to point or about 30 inches not counting the points.  That would be a row gauge of 33 rows = 4 inches.  That pattern calls for a row gauge of 18 rows = 4 inches.  It could be that there are 18 garter stitch ridges per 4 inches.  That math comes out about right.  I decided I would just knit the 248 rows, which came out at about the right length.  It is a blanket, after all.

Yarn:  10 colors of Knitpicks Swish DK including seven heathers:  amethyst, marble, garnet, persimmon, grain, tidepool, forest and delft plus two non-heathers -- bark and peapod.  One skein of each was plenty.

CJ's baby blanket on a spring day in the park.