Soft Wool Blanket for a Newborn Baby Boy

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)

 

Comments

[Nubia]

it's soooo pretty Madhuri!

[online consultation]

Wow, that's really nice I think the baby will love this.

[Wool Blanket]

Thank you for showing my blanket. I’m loving these colours so much. Can’t wait for the edging.