Baby's New Knits

My friend M just had a baby. Well, two months ago, but still. And while I started a blanket for him back in June, I waited (of course) until yesterday morning to finish it. Yesterday morning as in an hour and a half before the baby shower. That is, after staying up until 1am working on it on Friday.

And because I'm me, I adapted the pattern from one I found online. So my gauge was a bit off. It's really hard to tell these things when the yarn is on the needles. And it's really hard to tell when you've only got one row cast on. Knit fabric stretches and it always seems much smaller with one row than with 150 rows. So... I ended up making it a bit too wide.

But, as I mentioned, I was running out of time. When it looked like I'd gotten it to an appropriate length, I finished up the border and cast off. And when it was off the needles, it became very apparent that the blanket was far more rectangular than square. Of course, had I just made it narrower by 30-40 stitches, that extra would have gone into the length and it would have been damn-near perfect. Drat. And I take such bad notes I don't even remember how many stitches I cast on in the first place. So the next blanket is likely to look the same (or too narrow for its long length).

However, J (the baby) doesn't seem to mind and M doesn't seem to mind, either. I am not-so-secretly hoping that this turns into a blankie (my blankie was one knit for me by my mother) and at that point, the size won't matter at all. A blankie can be any size; it's about the comfort, not the coverage (or the komfort, not the koverage). Of course, kids (cids?) will latch onto whatever they please, and the blanket might just get relegated to the bottom of the toy box -- and it won't even be personal.



Also, M's family is awesome. They invited me over for dinner after the shower, forced me to stay the night, then fed me breakfast. They also insist that I join them for Thanksgiving, even though M will be back in Utah by then. They are friendly, supportive, and offer everything one could hope for in a surrogate family including food, wine, and teaching materials. (Just in case any of you were worrying about my support structures out here in the valley.)

For those of you who have ever put me up for a holiday, know that the tradition of my crashing your family events survives.