Over the last month and a half it seems that me and my little family have managed to pick up every illness under the sun going, hence the reason for why there hasn’t been a post for nearly a month. It also hasn’t helped that I’ve had a recent bout of insomnia that, thanks to a few nights of taking Nytol, I’m finally coming to the end off. I’m so sorry to everyone who has chosen to follow my little blog, hopefully I am back on track and there will be regular posts from now on.  On top of illness and sleep deprivation I have also been franticly trying to finish making two blankets that my sister asked me to make for her to give as baby gifts.

BLANKET #1

BABY DUE: April 2016

BABY BORN: April 6^th 2016

BLANKET FINISHED: April 10^th 2016 

 

BUT my sister is yet to visit said baby and she will now be able to take it when she does, so technically it was completed on time. I promise I am never normally late for deadlines; it’s been a tough month okay!

A few months ago I was sent an image of the sort of blanket the then mum to be would like.

 (Image from http://www.purlsoho.com)

She wanted it in a similar style and colour combination.

I knew the stitch pattern was a Moss stitch pattern and that it would need to be knitted with chunky yarn, but I couldn’t for the life of me decipher what sort of edging was used on the blanket in the picture. So did a little bit of snooping on Pinterest and found the original source of the above photo which led me to a blog called Purl Soho, the blanket is called the Eleventh Hour Blanket.

As I had expected the blanket was knitted in Moss stitch, two strands of chunky weight yarn were used to make it super chunky and the edging was called an I-cord edging.  I’ve never done an I-cord edging before but I’m pretty quick at picking up new techniques. Now that I knew what the edging was called I could do some research once I was at the edging point on the blanket.

My usual yarn for making baby blankets is Stylecraft Special as I love how soft it feels for an acrylic yarn. I like using Acrylic yarn when making baby blankets as you can never been too sure about wool allergies. Also wool can sometimes be quite itchy unless you go for some of the lovely expensive stuff, which wouldn’t be at all cost effective when making a blanket which is going to need six plus balls of yarn. I ordered 6 balls of the Stylecraft chunky yarn in cream and one ball of Stylecraft Chunky in Gold to make the border.

Once the yarn had arrived I cast on 76 stiches with 8mm Knit Pro Karbonz, with a 100cm interchangeable cord and worked in a K1 P1 Moss Stitch pattern until all 6 balls were used up, this measured roughly 60cm x 75cm.

 

It was the first time I had used Knit Pro Karbonz, as I usually used Knit Pro Symfonie or Nova when using interchangeable needles. I can’t say I was totally enamoured by them if I’m honest.  I can’t quite put my finger on why though as the tips were plenty pointy and they felt very sturdy. It could be because they felt a little plastic and light although this may be a plus for some people as I know people look for those qualities when looking through needle specifications. To be honest it could just be that I’m not used to knitting with such big needles, in fact I think the biggest I’ve knitted with prior to this blanket were my 5mm Knit Pro needles. I’ll use them again if I have another 8mm project, but I don’t think I’ll buy them in another size.  

The blanket pattern suggested that I only use one strand of the chunky wool for the border. I didn’t realised until I was about to start the border that I had actually ordered Double Knit (DK) wool, doh! So I   doubled up the DK instead which I gathered would roughly make a chunky wool. 

I’m really pleased with how the edge turned out and the colour that I chose. The patterns explanation of the I-cord edge was a little confusing, so I did a little bit of YouTube searching and found some really great tutorials. I picked it up pretty quickly and I’ll be using it again for other knitted blankets that I make.

 
I LOVE how this blanket turned out, I think it looks really chunky and fluffy. 

 

It’s not normally my usual style when knitting as it’s a lot more rustic looking that my normal makes, but I actually really like that. I love how every stitch isn’t the exact same size and that there are little holes in between some of the Moss stitches. I knew that this would be the case as I’ve seen how other Moss stitch blankets have knitted up, so I didn’t worry about it too much. I just hope that baby Aurelia loves it too.

BLANKET #2

BABY DUE: May 2016

BABY BORN: No baby yet

BLANKET FINISHED: Not finished yet…

  

Here is a progress shot so far, I’m about 75% of the way through.

 
Thanks for reading.

A xx