Monday, February 15, 2010

Knitting a Baby Blanket Diagonally!


I have always wanted to have a go at knitting something diagonally, from corner to corner. After I finished knitting the random stripes jumper for my daughter last year, I had quite a lot of pink yarn and some white yarn left over. I looked on the Internet for a free knitting pattern to use up this yarn and came across this free easy stitch baby blanket pattern that is knitted from corner to corner.

When I started knitting the baby blanket, I had no idea who I was going to give it to. I'm not planning to have any more children and no-one I knew was pregnant at the time. Then, a few months later, my best friend in England told me that she was pregnant! I still wondered if the baby would be a girl as my friend told me that she thought it was a boy! Then, at her 20 week scan, she found out, to her delight, that she is expecting a girl!

I am thrilled that the blanket will have such a good home. Also, my daughter and I made an extra baby girl card from the cut-price craft materials we bought last year - that card will also find a good home in a few months time! My friend thinks that I'm psychic - I don't think so but I do believe that there is an overall purpose to life and little things like this make me realize that I should stop worrying, stop being negative and just live life to the full, because everything will turn out fine!!

Anyway, back to the blanket - I have now knitted a lot more than is shown in the photo. For the first half of the blanket, you increase one stitch on each row and the pattern tells you to do this until you have 208 stitches on the needle. Well, I reached 160 stitches and my needle was so crowded that I couldn't fit another stitch on (the pattern did advise using a circular needles but I have never knitted in this way). So, I have now started to decrease on each row, which will take me back to the opposite corner. It will make a smaller blanket but it should still be large enough for small baby.

Having a deadline for finishing the blanket (i.e. before the baby's due date) is also good for me as I always take so long to finish projects!

4 comments:

Sandy said...

Very nice and one of the most versatile and frequently used patterns around. I've made wash cloths, dish cloths, baby blankets, and shawls using this method.

How cool that you started it and now your best friend has need, right down to it's color. I'm with you, sometimes we have a vib and things just work that way.

I love knitting in the round; never use straight needles. I use Denise needles so in your case when the needles got crowded you could have put an additional cord in and kept going. When you're done if you feel like it's not big enough make a nice large border...lacy. Do you crochet?

Have a great day
Sandy
Bridge and Beyond

Roz said...

Hi Sandy

It's nice to hear from you again! Actually, your blog posts seem to have inspired me to knit "more spiritually" (if I can call it that!) By that, I mean to plan less and go with the flow and see where it leads and I was surprised that I had such an interesting result the first time I did it!! So, thanks for the inspiration!

Isn't it amazing how we all knit differently! I have never heard of Denise needles and so I'll have to check them out, especially if I'm going to knit diagonally again!

The border idea is a good one but I think that the blanket will be large enough when it's finished. Also, with my time limit, I probably won't have much (if any!) extra time to do a border.

If I did do a border, it would have to be a knitted border, as, unfortunately, I can only do chain stitch. I would love to learn to crochet properly! Hopefully one day I'll have time!

Best wishes for a lovely day,

Roz

Sandy said...

Hi Roz,
Making my rounds today from Bridge and Beyond.

Thanks for the nice compliment about inspiring you.

What I like about the Denise needles is they aren't metal, they're light weight which is nice for the arthritis.

Have a good wkend, do swing by for a visit. Welcome mats always out.

Sandy

Roz said...

Hi Sandy,

You're very welcome!

I checked out the Denise needles and I definitely like the fact that you can extend them - needles that are too short for the required number of stitches is a problem I've encountered several times.

It's interesting that you prefer light-weight needles and I can imagine that they would be better for you. I have always used metal needles. I tried plastic needles once but knitting with them did not feel "right" for some reason!

Thanks for the suggestion, though - it's always good to learn about new products and I would be interested in trying out the Denise needles one day.

Best wishes,

Roz

 
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