Red Banket...is fini!

UPDATE 3/19/07: I guess I should have mentioned, and I apologize for not! That I used my NMCRS Basketweave Blanket V.2 pattern that you can find over on the left side of the page under the Wishing I was Knitting at the Lake Pattern section. If you click on the pattern name, hopefully the link will take you to the day where I'd posted the pattern in the past! Thanks for all the interest in this pattern! I hope you love this one as much as I do! The pattern is over there

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I am happy to say, the red blanket is all finished! Once again, I love this pattern. I've made several blankets from this, and I will continue to make more. It's a fast pattern that I've used to teach beginning knitters how to knit and purl in the same row making a project that they could enjoy having and had requested. It's also perfect for taking along to work on while at sporting event your kids are in, or for tv/movie watching. One row knit, one row of simple counting up to eight. And if you're really good, you can knit this with your eyes closed!

The original pattern was written with 100% acrylic in mind. While making baby blankets for the NMCRS (Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society) with the yarn (Red Heart's TLC Lustre) they supplied, I wanted to try my hand at writing some of my own patterns. There are a few things I noticed with this different fiber content starting with the way it knitted up 'shorter' than my previous blankets. I'm assuming that is due to the cotton content. To combat that effect, I extended the pattern repeats once more for a total of nine, rather than the original pattern of eight.

Knitting Stats:

9 pattern repeats to allow for cotton shrinkage
5 skeins of yarn - Lion Brand Cotton-Ease, in Cherry Red, [ label: 17 sts/24 rows=4"/10 cm, with (US)8 (5.0 mm), 50% cotton, 50% acrylic, 3.5 oz (100 g), 207 yds, 188 m]
size (US) 8 (5.0 mm) Addi Turbo needles

Pre-dryer blocking:
36" x 38.5" slightly stretched...(smoothed out on the bed)
gauge preblock: 16 sts x 24 rows = 4"/10 cm in stockinette st.

Post-dryer blocking:
33 3/4" x 38 1/2"
15 sts x 23.5 rows = 4"/ 10 cm in st. st.

Noticed while knitting this project:
This reminded of the cotton blankets my grandmother used to have for 'summertime' use. I did end up with some red fuzz on my black dress pants while working on it. Not to worry...it all brushed off easily.

Noticed after I finished this project:
I spritzed the blanket with a mist bottle, and popped it into the dryer for roughly ten minutes. AND BOY am I sad that Lion Brand has decided NOT to keep their primary colors for this yarn! It's soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo soft! I would have loved some little white blankets for my kids way back when...or to have made along the way for baby gifts!

When I bought up the Cotton-Ease after Lion Brand decided to discontinue this 'flavor', I had only been thinking of Chemo Caps with it. How little did I know! I just love how soft this little blanket turned out! I hope that the little one who ends up all wrapped up in this blanket will agree with me, and spend many hours dreaming of only things babies can dream of. Oh, heck! I wish I had enough on hand to make myself an afghan out of this! Yes, I probably have enough orange to do so, or the yellow color, but since I'm not the Great Pumpkin or a bumble bee...I won't be making myself an afghan out of Cotton-Ease anytime soon! Drats.

Now, if I could just get them to make Blue and Maize colors!

And a big thank you for the Boston area weather today...baby girl gets 3 extra days at home with mommy before she heads back. Her flight was finally cancelled at 7pm tonight...she's happy...more beach days..I'm happy...more days to see my kid! I just might have to make her a sparkley hat to go with her sparkley scarf....