Baby blanket mark II.

You might remember that not so long ago I knitted the tweed baby blanket by BrooklynTweed. I love his patterns and I especially loved that one which is why I bought it. However, I wasn't happy with the colours I picked out. I had my heart set on navy with cream edging. The store didn't have those colours and so I knitted in natural and green. My mum likes it but because it wasn't what I wanted I have never been entirely happy with it. The morrow of that story is don't settle. I had plenty of time to order it. Anyways, three weeks ago my mum had bought some yarn to knit up a couple of baby jumpers. The lighting in the shop showed the colour to be different to what it actually was so I bought it off her and decided to use it to do a second baby blanket for my friend. I saw on ravelry that someone had knitted the ballband dishcloth from the Mason-Dixon books as a baby blanket. I loved the look of it and this was what I used the yarn for.

I clearly don't like making things easy for myself. I had three weeks to knit this baby blanket. Plenty of time I though. Then I remembered that I had to do the challenge piece so the blanket was put down. I picked it up again and almost finished all the yarn I had. Instead of going shopping and getting back to work I waited until less than a week was left until the baby shower. So I have spent the last few days knitting furiously. I am very pleased with the end result. To do the blanket all you need to do is cast on 129 stitches and then follow the pattern in the book. It's fairly easy to do and in the end I found it quite boring. I love the effect though and it does make for a thick blanket. If I had the patience I would have done each row of bricks in a different colour.


Oddly I actually like the back of the blanket as much as the front. It looks like waves of water.

The book I got the pattern from is "Mason Dixon Knitting" by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne and is not long out in paperback. I love the patterns in the book and there are a few in it that's on my 'to do' list. That's not what makes it such a great book though. It is also a great read. There is lots of advice in there for knitters and each pattern comes with a story.