Overall Thoughts:

Requested by a friend as a donation to a fundraising raffle for a woman with breast cancer but no insurance.

Yarn is vintage from my grandmother’s stash. Can’t say it’s my favorite ever, but it’ll be durable, easy to care for, and I have a lot of it.

Not sure how this was originally done with only 660 yards. I hit 660-ish by the end of the fourth repeat, still had one more repeat and the border to go. Otherwise, really enjoyed the pattern. I would definitely recommend it; just be sure to have lots of yarn on hand.

Full Log:

26 August 2014: Converted to charts because I’m nutty that way. (Note from later: Row 13 does not easily chart. Watch out for it.) Going to do a few extra repeats, most likely, unless time is too short; I have plenty of extra yarn and would like this to be bigger than a baby blanket. Probably a seed stitch or garter border. I’d like to do fancier, but am afraid acrylic won’t block out well enough to do fancy lace.

27 August 2014: ~Halfway through center flower. The cast on was a little fiddly, but I got it right on the second try. Using size 6 DPNs. I left the work on just 2 needles until row 3-4, then transferred to 4 needles. Putting stitch holders on the ends of the needle I wasn’t using for the first couple of rows helped keep the needles from slipping out of the work. Yarn is not my favorite, but will be durable and washable; hopefully washing will help ease the scratchiness. Looks great so far. Probably have to switch to magic loop before I get to the end of the flower; I’ve got kind of a lot of stitches going on already (and yo’s on the ends of needles are less of a problem that way).

28 August 2014: Finished flower and into the first repeat of the main portion of the blanket. Switched to size 8 after completing flower. Looks great so far if I do say so myself. Have enough stitches now to move from magic loop to travelling loop.

05 September 2014: Completed second repeat. Almost done with first skein of yarn.

14 September 2014 (approx): Completed third repeat, almost done with second skein. Comfortably working without loops magical or traveling, not yet crowded enough to move up to a longer cable. I have a 60” if I need it but it will be a pain to change since my February Lady is already on it. I need to remember to measure an exiting throw for target dimensions, since I would like this to not just be a baby blanket. Also I need to remember where I put the remaining skeins of this yarn. I’m afraid they might have gotten buried underneath the recent influx of stuff that a friend picked up for me at a garage sale…

25 September 2014: …Am I there yet? No?…

29 September 2014: Finished fourth repeat. Shortly before finishing repeat, also finished third skein.

02 October 2014: Blanket needs to be done by Monday night, latest. It’s Thursday. Yipes.

06 October 2014: Got it done, just barely! Stuck to just 5 repeats as described in the pattern; used a plain garter stitch border because it was faster and I was in a time crunch. Blanket is pretty small, but for a baby blanket I think it’ll do…?

Later same day, after washing: Garter edge curls up. Fabric is not square and will not lie flat. Yarn is as disappointing after washing as it was before, but that was a given. I don’t think these are pattern issues; these are me issues. I’m disappointed in it, but… rush jobs. You know?