Blanket for Baby Jack

We've discovered that some friends are expecting a baby boy on or around April 15, 2006 ... wow, what a day to be born if he's on time! I've started a baby blanket for Baby Jack. I couldn't decide which pattern to use for the blanket. I was thinking of using the Baby Fern Stitch since it looks lovely and is a quick knit. I was also toying with the idea of using Vine Lace from BW#1 pg 218, which looks like an even quicker knit. A while back I was interested in doing the Pinwheel Blanket, however I've decided that doing all that stockinette stitch will be way too B-O-R-I-N-G...

In the end, I eventually decided to make the same blanket I made for Marisa last January. Oh my, casting on 240 stitches takes forever! As I was knitting the first row of the pattern, the number of stitches didn't work out in the end ... I thought I counted wrong when I cast on my stitches. I was afraid I would have to frog it and re-cast on 240 stitches. Fortunately, I "read" my knitting and saw where I made a mistake in the pattern, lost my place by skipping a few stitches in the pattern. So all I needed to do was tink back about 50 stitches (slow process with lace!) and correct it. All was right after that. Yay!

I discovered a US7 needle shortage after starting this blanket. Not the first time though. I had already picked up 2 new US7 needles a couple weeks ago so I could work on chemo hats in the round. After I started the blanket, I discovered that I no longer had a pair of US7 needles to start my next hat! I have one 40" US7 needle on my Flower Basket Shawl, another 32" US7 needle on a basketweave scarf. I had been using 32" and 29" US7 needles for hats this past week; then I used the 32" US7 needle for the blanket, which left me with one single 29" US7 needle. Doh! I fixed the problem by taking the basketweave scarf off its needles, and using that 32" US7 needle (along withthe 29" needle) for my next hat.

Since this blanket will take me a long time to knit, my goal is to knit at least one row per day or about 8-10 inches per month. Hopefully that will help me get it done by April. :) It will be slow going. This yarn is more slippery than the hat yarns, so I have to be very careful not to let any stitches fall off the needle. I'm guessing that this blanket will be about 48 to 49 inches wide. Not sure how long it will be until it's done...

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