A blanket for my grandson

It was a long time in the making, and then several months before I got this posted. But I did make a knit blanket to welcome my first grandson to the fact his grandma knits for those she loves.

I wanted something colorful, and had picked a color work pattern way back a year ago in Dec. I bought four yarn colors as suggested by the pattern. My choice was a variegated in pastels (but not the traditional pinks and blues) and three colors that matched the variegated. I cast on, knit the edging and started the pattern. I quickly realized this pattern really was not good for a baby. It was a blanket, but the pattern seemed to ignore the fact there was a wrong side, and that side was ugly with stranding. I was about three inches into it, when I decided that it was not what I had in mind at all.

It sat for two months while I looked for the elusive pattern I had knit years ago for a coworker's baby. It was slip stitch and you never carry more than two yarns. I finally found it, a copied sheet. I have no idea of the source of the pattern. It looks striped because it is done in two row sections then there is a color change. I started the edge with the variegated, then went in the same color sequence every two rows with two rows of the variegated between color changes. The variegated yarn was carried up the side of the entire blanket. The other colors were cut and the ends woven in as I went, a true disciplined act on my part.

The slip stitch in the pattern creates the honeycomb look as the slipped stitch is carried up the two rows. The variegated rows were plain knit.

Ethan arrived March 1st, six weeks early. The new pattern blanket had just barely been started. I finished it in Oct, and he loves sleeping with it.