I recently had the opportunity to knit a blanket for Mateo, who was born a healthy baby boy to Andy's cousin last month. Unlike most of my recent knitting experiences, this was a relatively stress-free project planning experience. I picked out a pattern pretty quickly in my fantastic Leisure Arts Baby Afghans book, and I was able to find a really great machine washable worsted weight wool yarn, Swish Worsted, at KnitPicks.com. The knitting itself though was somewhat more stressful with me starting, finishing and blocking the blanket within a little over a week (I think I basically only knit, ate and slept the entire week, which happened to coincide with both the D.C. snowstorm and a nasty cold that I had that week). The blanket probably took about 50 hours to complete. Given the time crunch I felt that I was under, I ended up throwing the blanket in the dryer on just a no-heat cycle after blocking it overnight to get the rest of the water out. That final step -- putting it in the dryer for about 15 minutes or so -- was exactly what this yarn needed for the pattern to truly take shape and for the yarn to get some "bounce" into the fibers. I really loved using this yarn, and look forward to using it again for baby blankets given that it is 100% natural fibers and machine washable-- a fantastic combination for baby knits.
Mateo's Baby Blanket Project Details
Pattern: Decked in Diamonds by Carole Prior, Published in Leisure Arts Our Best Knit Baby Afghans
Yarn: 7.2 balls (approx.) of KnitPicks.com Swish Worsted in color Bok Choy
Needle: One Size 10 Circular, 30 inches long
Post-Blocking Measurements: 41 inches wide by 32.5 inches tall (wider and shorter than pattern original measurements; I wanted a slightly smaller blanket than the pattern called for)