Helpful Hint #20: Simple projects don’t necessarily require a pattern

I had a spiritual awakening the other day.

Once again, we have a coworker who is showing every sign of having a little bun in the oven. I’d love to knit her a baby blanket, but in keeping with my earlier post, I really want to make a very SIMPLE baby blanket this time around. I stumbled upon a blanket online that completely meets my needs–Stockinette Stitch with a Seed Stitch border. It looks like one can just either knit two worsted weight strands together or use a bulky yarn. It’s just PERFECT.

I remembered that I had this pattern in a booklet at home, but after scouring my entire book and pattern collection (this took a while); I came to the conclusion that I must have either tossed it out with the recycling or accidentally given it away with all my old knitting and crocheting magazines. I contemplating spending more $$$ to buy another one…but then I had my spiritual awakening. Wait for it…wait for it…

IT’S A RECTANGLE.

The way I figure it, I usually knit 2.75 per inch in Stockinette Stitch for worsted weight yarn, using Size 13 needles, and 2.75 x 30 = 82.5. Therefore, I’ll need to cast on 82 stitches for a baby blanket that’s 30 inches wide. Actually, to account for the differing Seed Stitch gauge, I will just cast on 8 less stitches (74), do 10 rows of Seed Stitch, and then add the 8 stitches evenly across the row when I get to the Stockinette section with 5 Seed Stitches on either side. I’ll keep going until I get to around 38–39 inches, then decrease 8 stitches evenly across the row before I do another 10 rows of Seed Stitch. DONE.

As far as colors go, I may go crazy and buy more yarn, or I may just take yarn I already have and mix and match for stripes.

There. I just saved myself money on a booklet that I’m probably going to find again someday when cleaning…

More stealth baby items...

Yes, once again, I’ve been diverted from my Rune Sweater to knit up more stealth baby items. This time, someone from our Stitch ‘n’ B group has decided that it would be a great idea for each of us to knit up some squares to put together for a baby blanket for an acquaintance whose wife is expecting. My fellow SnB-er is from the South, of course. It’s actually been good to get acquainted with someone south of the Mason-Dixon line, as I never realized before just how selfish and narrow so many of us are up north when it comes to reaching out to our fellow humans. Some of us (okay, me) get so caught up in our day-to-day lives, struggles, and general drama, that we forget the basic Golden Rule “Do unto others...”

Now, I can’t say for whom we’re making this blanket, as it’s supposed to be a surprise...

I swear, at this point, I’m really beginning to think that perhaps I should just perpetually have something on the needles--or on the hook--all the time for babies, as women right and left seem to be just dropping them like calves. Lest you think this is original, I get this expression from my dear late aunt “Arnie,” who used to declare in a voice loud enough for the entire restaurant to overhear, “Well, good heavens, when is she going to drop that calf???” Arnie, bless her, had slight control issues, and nothing made her crazier than things not going her way—like people who weren’t having the baby fast enough for her liking or on her timetable—especially a family member. My mother’s nickname for her was “The General.”

I still think there’s something in the water up here in these parts...anyone wanting to drop a calf, or any other form of baby, should just move to CT. I’ll be waiting with the needles and yarn...

Utter Chaos...

Holy Cow! Working on the Hooded Duck Blanket, sewing the pieces together. The bill took forever to get even onto the hood. I need to figure out how the %$@# I'm going to get the hood lined up with the blanket, I have no damned black buttons for the eyes, so I may take the cheap route and do I-cord buttons, as I really don't want to go out in the middle of a possible HURRICANE to get buttons, and I have no idea how to do the I-cord edging, as I've forgotten all my lessons from the Jacqueline Fee The Sweater Workshop book, and in the words of my favorite coworker: "OH, MY FRICKIN' GOD!!!"

Breathe...Breathe...Breathe...