Alphabet baby blanket -- February-May 2006

It's finished! I can unveil the mystery at last, the Super Secret Project is this alphabet baby blanket for my very best friend's baby (due imminently, eek!).

I should really have secretly blogged everything I went through while I was knitting it so that I could whip out a ready-made post now, but of course I didn't. So in brief: for the most part I loved making this, even though the end of it didn't seem real until about two weeks ago. It has been carried with me on every long train journey and picked up and continued through every spare moment for the past three months, so saying goodbye to it was kind of odd (but, actually, by the end I was fairly desperate to get rid). The pattern kept my interest all the way through (until the never-ending triangles of DOOM around the edge, ahhhh!), and was a pleasant mix of enough concentration required for it not to be boring, and easy purl rows and an easy-to-read pattern so I could still keep up one end of a conversation.

Photos are not the best -- when it was blocking it took up almost the total spare floor space in my room, and once finished there was nowhere very appropriate to take a picture. But it is lovely and I am very proud. Also the yarn is so very soft and warm, and hopefully the baby will find it cosy and comforting (before she pukes and dribbles all over it -- yes, it is machine-washable).

The Debbie Bliss wool/cotton suggested in the pattern (and, incidentally, I did object to the smug instructions in this book to 'always use the yarn suggested, where possible', because oh yes, all the yarns suggested are yours, aren't they Debbie?) is discontinued now so I used RYC Cashsoft Baby DK which I maintain is one of the most beautiful yarns ever to knit with, for babies and adults! It also goes on for miles -- I bought eleven skeins and started off saving every stray end in fits of paranoia that I might run out. In the end I had one untouched skein left and probably the equivalent of a whole skein in other odds and ends.

Anyway, I like it and my friend likes it and these are the two main things. But now, perhaps, time for something small and swift again.

Details: Alphabet blanket from The Baby Knits Book by Debbie Bliss, knitted in RYC Cashsoft Baby DK on 3.75 and 3.25mm 32" bamboo circular needles.

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