Sassy Does It

Baby’s out, and it’s a girl! 

That crochet border can be as feminine as it darn well wants to be.

Three girls for Sissy B now.  Boys are nice and all, but back in the day, my two sisters plus me made a total of three, so this feels about right.  No boys allowed in the treehouse.

Everyone is happy and healthy and hopped up on the promise of sleep deprivation.  All is right in the world.

Let’s get ready to rumble with a rundown on this Summer Baby Blanket.

First – I do realize it’s a simple blanket pattern and there’s not a whole lot to write up here…but I’m a big writer-up-er, as you know.  Partly because I like to blab on about things (hence the blog); moreover because it takes me so long to get things done that it seems each FO should be fawned over.

Pattern: 
Summer Baby Blanket, free pattern here (all in Japanese, but you only need the chart download)

Yarn:  Blue Sky Alpacas, Skinny cotton

Needle:  US 6 / 4.0 mm, circulars

Dimensions:  43”H x 40”W (blocked)

Overall – yes, I like the look of this blanket very much.  The pattern isn’t tough - very easy by heart with six rows of repeat - but for some reason it just looks cool to me. 

The blanket might look lacy, but I don’t see it as lacy.  The Skinny yarn isn’t really that skinny (5 st/in on size US 6, bigger needle than recommended) so the plump stitches create the kind of texture that makes the pattern pop up.  I like the way the each column of three knit stitches stands out between the purls, a neat double-decrease twist that comes up to meet each flower before tucking under. (And yes, I can call it a flower now.  A girly-looking one.)

Either side could be considered right-side, but for me it’s the side with predominantly purls.  Wrong-side shown facing up in the photo below.

It ended up wider and longer than I anticipated (I blocked it firmly in the end, on purpose), but bigger is usually better in my opinion.  All the more room for spreading out and (eventually) rolling around.  I like that it’s a touch longer than wide, as this is the way my eye likes my blankets.

I’ve been trumpeting on about the crochet border, and really this was the cherry on top for me.  It was fun to make and I like the finished look. 

I used this site to coax me along with videos of crochet stitch instruction, including a little reminder education on the chart symbols.

Even though as a crochet novice I had my share of screw-ups along the way, everything panned out with a little patience for the occasional rip-out and re-do (inserting a beer in between did help).

Because I’m weird, I tend to be frightened of color combos in knitting (both with multiple solids and variegation – what if my stripes end up looking stupid? what if people roll their eyes and say, “who puts those two colors together?), but I went out on a crazy ledge here, and I do like the sagey-green Pear color against the natural tone of the border.  I think it works.

My only beef with this project is the fiber I chose, really.

I do like the yarn, but I don’t love it. 

Very splitty.  Very. 

Not that it wasn’t manageable, just annoying on a fairly frequent basis.  You can see here that there are a lot of plies involved and my heavens, do they ever like to separate whilst one knits.  Like a bunch of strings.

The finished fabric is softish, but not dreamy.  Not like the slightly heftier (yet not bulky) cotton from Blue Sky Alpacas that I used for Curlicue (this cotton was much softer, and with plies that stayed together, mind you).  It seems counterintuitive to me that Mr. Skinny is heartier than Mr. Only A Bit Bulkier from this manufacturer.  In the end, though, hearty is good: this increases the durability, which is what I was shooting for – something that will take a good beating and wear well over time.

All of that said – now that this puppy is finished and blocked, the afore-dinged yarn and I are getting along better.  It’s got a nice drape, and the fabric isn’t too heavy for summer.  And I think it will soften up a whole lot with a couple of good machine washes and a nice slug of Downy.  Part of the draw was that this cotton can go straight into the wash (and the blanket’s big enough that there can be plenty of shrinkage and it will still be big).

Pattern-wise, well, I made a few adjustments, even though it doesn’t seem like this would be that critical for a blanket (uh, knit it as wide as you want, and then stop knitting when it’s long enough, duh).

The number of stitches repeating in the main blanket pattern is different than the number repeating in the border, so it seems they should both divide in to the same multiple (assuming you want them to meet up and play nice at the corners).  With that in mind, the recommended number of stitches for the width and height seemed off to me.

But.  That may be because I was guessing as to what was actually recommended.

The only numbers in the pattern were wedged in between Japanese characters, so I kind of assumed that these particular numbers corresponded to the number of total stitches.  It’s true that my lack of Japanese fluency may have led me astray here.

Anyhoo, I did a back-of-the-envelope calculation (OK – I did a spreadsheet, because I’m a nerd) to come up with a stitch count that had the proper multiple.

• The pattern suggests 163 across; I cast on 155.
• Where the pattern came in at 194, I finished with 200 rows.

With these stitch counts, the repeated crochet border pattern overlaid with the blanket repeats very neatly.  Small changes, but they appeased the math beast and made me sleep better at night.

On the border: lovely as it is as written, I actually decided to nix the last of the outside rows.

There were quite a few (simple chain) stitches meant to trace the total surface area of the already-curvy border. 

Very pretty indeed, and I wanted to keep it, but there was just a little too much ruffle. 

I’ve got nothing against ruffles, but in the end it seemed A) too flouncy and B) too heavy in contrast to the airier look of the blanket. 

And I wanted it to block out flat, which it just wouldn’t have done with the last row in place.

If you want a pretty ruffle (seems more appropriate if you’re forging ahead with the feminine idea from the start), a lighter-weight yarn would rock that look.

Blocking:  even without that extra outside row, the border wanted to ruffle a bit length-wise, but this went away with blocking as desired. 

I got out the fancy blocking wires I was all excited about a few months ago and slid the longest straights down each side.  I could’ve used a boat-load of T-pins to achieve this, but don’t the wires make more sense?  The before and after pics make me proud of my blocking bling (and grateful for the quick work).

I opted for a gentle wash with my mild-mannered Eucalan prior to blocking.  Always a pleasure, that stuff.  For some reason, I feel quite fancy whipping it out of the closet.  I think I’m still chuffed that I’m no longer confounded by the likes of Woolite, the rarely-wielded luxury item whose function perplexed me as a child, looking up at Mom’s laundry shelf and wondering what the heck it was for. 

I have my own special soap now, tra la la.

The blocking was definitely needed as the blanket wanted to pull in width-wise before blocking, leaving the poor thing with that unkempt didn’t-check-myself-in-the-mirror-this-morning look.

This initially put me off when I checked the pre-blocking photos of others’ work before committing to this project, but since their blocked blankets looked nice and uniform, I trusted that mine would, too, after blocking.  And it did. 

After washing again, it could bunch back up, but really – who cares, for Pete’s sake. As long as it’s loved.

Well.

Looks like this is the end of the line for me and Summer Baby Blanket. 

It’s been fun, blankie, but it’s time for you to sally forth.

My brand spankin’ new niecie awaits, and she’s a fine little lady.  Keep her safe and warm.  Be her companion, her comfort,  her shelter when she needs you. 

Enjoy, pretty girl, and know that you’ll always be wrapped up in my love.