Monday, June 06, 2011

My biggest knitting project so far!

After I started knitting in January and realized that it was something that I actually enjoy, I decided that I wanted to tackle something a bit bigger, but still not so challenging that I would feel overhwelmed.  I decided to knit a baby blanket for my coworker.  I figured if I started early (I think I bought the yarn and needles in February and started knitting either in February or March) that I should be able to finish it by the time baby comes in August. 

After humming and hawing around a lot, I finally came to the decision to make a sampler afghan.  I picked out five colours and decided to choose five different patterns.  The colours I chose are blue, green, orange, yellow and white.  The patterns I went with are garter stitch, seed stitch, diagonal ribbing, basket weave and a window pattern. 

I finished knitting the last square over the weekend and decided to start stitching the squares together.  It has gone quite well, after I got the stitching technique down.  I have to say that it is not perfect, however I think it has come together much more nicely than I had imagined it would.  Even though all the pieces are not absoutely identical in size, because knitting stretches, I have been able to sew them together quite neatly.  I am not quite done, I still have five squares to sew into a strip then I have to sew the strip onto the rest of the blanket.  When it is finished it will be about 3x3 feet.  I think it will be a nice size for a baby. 

When I am all done I plan to run it through the washer and dryer because if it will be a baby blanket I imagine there is a chance that it will get dirty and I want to make sure it will stand up to machine washing and drying.  I will say a prayer when I do because this thing has taken hours and hours of work, and I would hate to see a trip through the wash ruin it.  However, I would rather know before I give it to it's future owner.  I have knit it out of cotton yarn, which says it can be washed and dried.  I guess we will see!  I will post some pictures of it once it is done, and before I put it through the wash.  :)

As for my next projects.  The only things I can think of right now is making some thumbless mitts for Oliver and possibly a little birthday present for Oliver's sister.  I suppose I could start thinking about Christmas presents, as I tend to be a slow knitter, especially when I am following a pattern. 

1 comment:

Lyn said...

there's some beautiful kids' sweater patterns out there. I used to get books at the library and photocopy the pattern I was interested in.