Keeping the kids cozy

 
After seeing my baby girl's feet poking out of the bottom of her current blanket, I decided it was high time I knit both of the kids bigger blankets. 

I'm waiting on the yarn to arrive for Rachel's blanket.  The pic above is the blanket I started for Jacob.  I have some Knit Picks Comfy Sport in Flamingo (soft pink) and Ivory that's been in my stash for what seems like an eternity.  I'd ordered it when I was newish to knitting, and she was just a newborn.  She's going to be 3 next month, so I guess it really has been a while. 

I really want to use up the yarn that I have in my stash.  I can't stand I'm not particularly fond of knitting with cotton, but this yarn isn't as bad as a lot of others.  It's super soft, and the little bit of acrylic (25%) in it helps me knit it without my wrists hurting too much.  I still can't knit on it all night, but it's better than most other cottons.  Heck, I won't even buy cotton yarn anymore that isn't going to be made into washcloths. 

Being that I'm obviously sooo in love with knitting cotton yarn, it totally makes sense to buy even MORE right?  It makes more sense (to me, but I might be nuts) to place an order for a little extra, and actually use it, than to just leave it sitting there for another few years because I can't think of what else to use it for. 

I have about 400yds of each of the two colors, which is great, but not enough to knit her a blanket for her current size.  I placed an order with them for a little extra of the two colors, and added some Lilac Mist and Sea Foam.  Rachel is a color loving girl.  I know she'll enjoy a blanket with those colors much more than she will just pink and cream.  Here are the color pics from the knitpicks website side by side.

Pretty no?  I'm planning on knitting stripes using all four colors with a seed stitch border in just the Ivory.  I'm going to work the border using the intarsia method so I don't have to worry about picking up stitches later. 

Since I was already placing an order, I threw in more cables and a set of needle tips in the 4 sizes I use the most (5, 6, 7 & 8).  Couldn't hurt right?  I mean really, how in the world am I going to start even more new projects if I don't have any more cables?

I knew there was no way I was going to knit TWO cotton blankets, and I didn't already have enough of any boyish colored Comfy in my stash that would justify buying even more.  Except for 3 little skeins of a discontinued dark brown.  And that is NOT enough of a stash squatter for me to subject myself to even more cotton.

Stash Squatter - Yarn that just sits and sits in your stash, refusing to be knit up for one reason or another.  This yarn will sit there, guilting and mocking you for years, all the while laughing because it fully knows it doesn't even want to be knit.  If it did, it would be a prettier color/easier yarn to knit with/enough yardage...etc.  Beware the stash squatter.

I'm teaching my mom to knit, and who knows, maybe she'll want to knit something small...and cotton...and dark brown.  When that day comes, I'll have the perfect yarn.  HA!

I fished around in my stash and found a bunch of fingering weight wool/nylon blend that I'd dyed.  When I dyed it, I didn't have a project in mind.  I was really just playing around with color, and the yarn base was fairly cheap.  I figured worst case, I'd have a bunch of yarn for socks.  I can always use more hand knit socks.  I'm going to knit a garter stitch color block blanket for little man.  This picture is from last week.  I'm already done with the light blue/turquoise, and close to halfway through the green.  Next I'll knit the darkest blue, then the yellow, then the other lighter blue. 

And yes, I might be insane for starting two blankets right now.  I clearly don't already have enough knitting with all those sweaters.

xoxo,
Liz