Rosamund Baby Blanket Progress

I've been working on the Berroco Rosamund granny square baby blanket pattern off and on between other projects. I'm planning on having it done by the time my next baby arrives in September.
The pattern calls for 12, 18-inch squares to be made in order to make up the blanket. I'm only going to make 9 squares, which will be plenty big for a baby.

Instead of the Berroco yarn I'm using Bernat LuLu and Satin yarns in shades of white, yellow, and lavender. I've been deciding my own color order for the squares and just using the pattern as a guideline for how many rows to make for each square or series of squares.

Kids' Club Skirt

I have the book Greetings from Knit Cafe and have been dying to make the Kids' Club Skirt, although I had no little girl to make it for. I decided to make it for my friend's daughter for her 5th birthday because I thought she would like it. Her mom says she definitely will!

The only thing I did different from the pattern was use garter stitch at the bottom of the skirt instead of the 2x2 ribbing. I didn't want the skirt to pull in at the bottom.

I loved using a bunch of bright yarns I had leftover from other projects, including the 2 magic balls I created for the fun of it. This was a quick, easy knit and a lot of fun. It was so much fun that I can't wait to make another one!

Economical Baby Shower Blanket

When I saw a fleece blanket with crochet edging pattern in the August 2006 issue of Crochet Today, I knew I had to try it out. I had fleece and could sew a blanket stitch to use as a foundation for the crochet edging. Shortly thereafter I saw fleece baby blankets at the Dollar Tree store that already had the blanket stitch edging and got the idea to put on a crochet edging on an already-made blanket. I scooped up about 5 of them just to use for future gifts.

Well, I got the opportunity to edge one of those blankets when I needed a last-minute gift for a baby shower. I got out some worsted weight Bernat Satin-type yarn I had on hand to use to edge the blanket. I was planning on using the edging pattern from the Crochet Today pattern, but that was intended for a novelty-type yarn and the stitch pattern wasn't that interesting. I remembered a Family Circle granny square blanket pattern that I had made had a nice edging, so I got out the issue with the pattern and modified the edging to suit the blanket. It turned out really well, and the project only cost a few dollars to make, too!

The next time I edge another one of these dollar store blankets I'm going to embroider the baby's information since I can do that with my sewing machine. That will give it a more personal touch!

Indianapolis Colts Hat with Charted Horsehoe

My brother is a huge Indianapolis Colts fan, so I decided to knit him a Colts hat. I couldn't find a Colts hat pattern, so I decided to use a hat pattern and add the horseshoe.

I looked online for a charted Colts horseshoe but couldn't find one. I decided to give charting my own a try. I downloaded a Colts Horsehoe graphic and overlayed it on some knitting graph paper, tweaking it from there. What I have posted here is what I came up with.

I made two attempts at knitting this hat. In my first attempt, I found a hat pattern for a double-knit hat that I could use to make a reversible hat. I got the hang of double-knitting but found it tedious. It was great for adding a charted pattern, though, since there is no carrying of yarn to worry about. When I finally finished the hat, I was disappointed with it. It turns out that my purl stitches (the inside layer of the hat) were much looser than my knit stitches (the outside layer). Since I couldn't fix the hat, I ripped it all out and started over.

In my next attempt, I used a basic knitted in the round hat pattern. I just knit the hat in blue and used duplicate stitch to add the horseshoe after the hat was completed. This process was much quicker and turned out much better, as you can see above.

Feel free to use this chart for your Indianapolis Colts gear!

A Large Project Finished!

Here's what I've been working on and off for the past few months--a blanket project for a former classmate of mine who found out she has colon cancer. For more details on the project, look here.