baby blue seas of yarn

The baby blanket that I had previously posted about is finished. Ends were woven in -- and no, it wasn't as bad as I made it out to be -- and it was washed. I had to prove to myself that the sea of blue yarn wasn't going to unweave, wave by wave, in a machine. As much as I would have loved to make this blanket in something soft and pillowy, I'm not sure that any new mother really wants a hand-wash-only baby anything. Machine washing this made me feel better.

Still, washing and pinning dry didn't seem to even out any stitches or help with the garter-stitch border curling under. There's nothing notably off in this project, but I did think that the reverse-stockinette "J" would have looked better after blocking.

In any case, I'd make the blanket again, but only with a different yarn -- like absolutely no percent of acrylic whatsoever -- and I'd reconfigure the sizing of the "J". To put this into perspective: the blanket is about 235 rows tall and the letter chart is only 32 rows of the entirety. I think I'd at least double the initial, length and width.

The last part of Jackson's gift is this Cable and Seed Stitch Baby Hat from purlywhites. Her pattern, in her own words, "is a blatant rip-off of a Debbie Bliss pattern." Much like Sundara, I too feel that Debbie Bliss should rethink pattern writing and start knitting things like hats in the round. There is nothing worse that knitting hats flat, especially for babies who spend so much time laying on what would be a seam. Yuck. I have the Debbie Bliss book that this pattern is in, fell in love with the hat, but turned my nose up at it upon discovering the knit flat aspect.

Anyway, Sundara re-wrote the Debbie Bliss pattern so it can be worked in the round, and every seed stitch still matches up. I leapt for joy. Here was the hat I had wanted to make, with every kink worked out for me. Beautiful.