The Big, The Bad, The Beautiful (if I do say so myself)

Well, it is finally done. The Big, Bad Baby Blanket. And it's a beauty. I am really, really happy with the way it turned out. This has to be one of my favorite baby blanket patterns. Not that I have done many, but it is so simple and shows off the yarn so nicely. I am proud of myself for having finished this before the Peanut arrives too. I'm having a difficult time getting a decent picture of it though. I messed around with my camera a lot while we were out of town and now I've screwed up some of the settings. So this is the best of what I've got. I'm sure more of this blanket will show itself once the little babe has arrived (11 more weeks!).
The pattern is the Big, Bad Baby Blanket from Stitch n' Bitch. I used 8 skeins of Koigu KPPPM colorway p103 (green), size 9 needles. The finished measurements are approximately 32" x 33".







Towards the end I thought I was going to run out of yarn, so I bought another skein. Turns out I had just enough to finish the blanket without the extra skein, so now I am making little bitty baby socks to match & most likely a pair for Henry. I finished the first sock on our first day back in Illinois.

Now for some other knitting updates. I am just about half way through with my Noro project and I have begun the second of what I am calling my Second Attempt Socks. The second one seems to be coming along at a much quicker pace. It may be because I had to buy new needles (I lost a couple in Illinois) and I bought shorter ones than the ones I was using previously. I hope to have both of these projects finished by the first of August. I'm not holding my breath though.

Also, I got a few goodies while in Illinois. Since I am determined not to be a sock knitter, Matt picked out some sock yarn for his pair of socks (that I will apparently be knitting). I decided it is only fair for everyone in the Lewis household to have a pair of hand-knit socks, then after that we'll see. Maybe a pair a year (for me).



Matt's dad and stepmom (Chris) have a llama farm. Chris is a spinner and a knitter and she gave me this skein of black 100% alpaca. She said try it out and see what I come with and then she can send me more. It's the darkest, prettiest black I've ever seen even though the picture is terrible. We have too much dog hair floating around here for me to knit anything a solid black, but I will keeping my eyes open for a good pattern to incorporate this into.