A bit o' knitting

Pine Forest Baby Blanket

These days, it seems like all I knit are baby blankets and shawls. Mostly because I have been pretty much knitting blankets and shawls.

Thankfully, I love knitting these two things. And since it seems like everyone I know is having baby this year, there are lots of blankets that need to be made.

One blanket I knit was for a little girl who will be arriving in October. This precious baby will be her parent's first baby, which is a pretty special time for everyone. Every baby is special - I know, and I don't mean to imply something else - but a first baby is different because there's so much you just don't know yet!

Close-up of the stitches

Anyway, I decided to make the Pine Forest Baby Blanket (side note: you must be a member of ravelry to see this. And if you knit or crochet, I highly recommend you join, especially since it's free. And no, no one is paying me or comping me or anything to me to say this!)

I knit it up in Caron Simply Soft. I use this yarn often, which some of you have picked up on. It's soft, it's pretty, I've found it holds up well, and most importantly to me to give to parents-to-be, it's machine washable. Because who has time to hand wash and air dry a baby blanket with a sweet new baby in the house? Well, I certainly didn't.

I also knit it with a size 9 needle (one up from what the pattern recommends) and I added extra stitches to make it longer. I cast on 144 stitches and was really happy with it. I don't know how many rows I did, I just went until the yarn almost ran out (4 skeins) and when it looked big enough, but not too big.

I'm happy with how it turned out, though I'm not sure my pictures do the blanket justice.

My son holding it up for me!

The fun thing about this blanket is that I knit it EVERYWHERE. Mostly because the shower was coming up and I was running out of time. But this blanket was worked on at the pool, at the library, at softball games (both professional and when my daughters played), at lacrosse practice, in the car (not while I was driving, in case you think I'm that crazy!)

I'd like to think that as that blanket traveled around with me, that someday the baby who uses it will get to travel often, but yet not too far from home. That she might get to do a lot of fun things, have great times, and create some memories with her family and friends! I don't know if it's silly to think this way, but it is how I think and it makes me smile. Well, knitting in general makes me happy, so thinking good thoughts is just a bonus!