Michael's blanket

It's been quite a year for babies amongst our friends!  Shortly after finishing Gretta's blanket, I picked the needles up and started right into another blanket for another great pair of friends.  The little bundle of joy, Michael, was born on the last day of January to some pretty happy parents!

And I got to visit him just last week!  Such a happy little sweetie.  I think he'll look great wrapped up in this little basketweave blanket.  Knitters can find my pattern modifications at the bottom of this post.

I made the tag with supplies from my craft box:

Isn't the stamp great?  I thought a giraffe was suitable for a little baby boy.  It came from a stamp set I got a few years ago.  The images are woodcuts taken from an old edition of Webster's Dictionary.

And the gift wouldn't be complete without a handmade card:

I tried to emulate the "basketweave" pattern of the blanket on the card by weaving strips of cardstock together:

Now, on to the knitting details!

• Find my Ravelry project here
• I wanted to make this blanket suitable for a car seat/carrier, so it measures 30" x 31.5"
• According to my initial swatch and desired size, I loosely cast on 144 st
• Needle:  29" 4mm circular
• I went for a seed st border (k1, p1 and repeat for one row, then knit the purls and purl the knits for subsequent rows) of 14 rows deep
• For the 15th row (the first row of basketweave squares) I began a 12 st side border in seed st, then k10, p10 and repeat until 12 st from the edge (seed st last 12 st)
• [In retrospect I would have cast on 140 and made the side borders 10 st wide instead of 12]
• Each basketweave square is 14 rows x 10 st
• After 14 rows, simply switch knit sections to purl and vice versa
• When 2" from desired length, revert back to seed st for 14 rows and loosely bind off
• Yarn is Lion Brand Cotton Ease - machine washable and dryable!  Essential for a little babe.

And that's all I have to say about that.  Michael, I hope the blanket keeps you toasty this winter and I just can't wait to see you next time!

More of my knitting posts can be found here.