You may recall that I started a baby blanket for my niece a little while ago, and knitted quite a bit of the centre of it on my holidays. I finally finished it and my parents kindly stuffed it in their suitcase when they flew over to meet Jennifer at the end of October.
The pattern is a fairly traditional Shetland hap pattern from Chris Williams’s Lace Class. The inside square is garter stitch knitted on the bias. There is then a border of feather and fan pattern, and then a sideways knitted simple garter stitch lace edging.
It was very enjoyable to knit, and although Jenny is a little young to be expressing an opinion on these things her parents seem to like it 🙂
I used 6 x 50g of Sirdar Snuggly 4ply, 55% nylon, 45% acrylic, and 4mm needles.
The blocking was slightly scary. Being nylon and acrylic you have to be a bit careful with blocking if you use steam. However if you pin out your blanket and steam it very gently it will actually set the stitches so that it wont need blocking after subsequent washing. The careful part is key here since you have to be very careful not to totally melt your yarn! As you hover with the steam you can actually see the stitches relaxing (permanently!). A lie down in a darkened room is recommended after you do this.
It all went ok though, and hopefully this will save the blanket from needing to be reblocked while still being easily washable.
That sounds extremely stressful – but it does look beautiful.
It was a bit nerve-making but not too bad. I think the results were worth it though 🙂
As the recipient of this fabulous blanket (I’m Heather’s sister and Mum of her niece, and given Jenny is now 5 months I’m therefore appreciating it on her behalf), I would like the fabulousness of this blanket to be noted for posterity! It’s awesome! All my friends keep asking me where I got it at which I smugly reply that it’s a Heather special and one of a kind. Love it, love it, love it, thanks H!
Honestly? It was totally worth a bit of stress. That blanket is so delicately beautiful. And I’m particularly happy that you used the jigsaw mats. When I discovered those, my knitting expanded.
I can see Jenny’s gonna be spoiled by aunt Heather, in the knitting department, LOL!
Thanks for stopping by my blog! Yours is a pleasure to read, with much to share––thank you!
I definitely agree with you it was worth the stress 🙂 The jigsaw mats are great, I have 8 and can create a good variety of shapes with them, all I need now is a larger patch of floor to put them on 🙂
Thank you for stopping by my blog. I have so much stuff I must actally update it with soon! (oh, for some more hours in the day!)
Where can I get this pattern
The pattern was designed by Chris Williams who used to go to the knitting group I go to, before she moved to Wales. I’m afraid I am not in contact with her anymore, but she is on Ravelry at chriswillknit so that might be a way to contact her and ask about the pattern.