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Monday 10 March 2014

The End of the Blanket

I was wondering whether I should really post the finished photos of the elephant baby blanket on here.  I don't think Rona and Matthew ever look at my blog, but there's always a first time isn't there?

I'd been planning on making a baby blanket ever since Rona and Matthew visited in the summer and casually announced they (well, Rona to be precise) were pregnant.

I asked Rona if I could make something for the new baby and we decided on a blanket. Baby clothes in handspun wool are probably not a good idea as they need to be easy to throw in the washing machine.  Hopefully, the blanket won't need to be washed quite as often.  Full washing instructions will be given first-hand when we visit the UK in the coming weeks.

I probably started this in about October when I dyed the wool (beautiful merino fleece from Maco Merinos here in France) for the elephants using woad plants from the garden.


Since then, I've been planning, designing, carding, spinning and knitting like mad.


Wouldn't you just know it though, I ran out of white wool 14 rows before the end.  Spun some more and knit that up . . . 6 rows left to go!


At least I knew that this time when I spun more wool it would finish the thing!

 

So, after a final soak in soapy water to get rid of any last residual dirt, and allowed to dry in the sunshine, here is the finished item . . .



Brody's Baby Blanket

Not the best photo in the world, but it does show the complete pattern.  The bobbles around the elephants look like holes don't they?

I have to say, the elephants are not my own design.  I downloaded charts from the internet for these, but we did modify them to suit what would fit and what I wanted.  The elephant in the middle was actually quite a small chart so we made it bigger, and the small elephants just didn't look quite right in some places once knitted, so we altered those as well.

I am planning (sometime) to publish this pattern on Ravelry, as everything apart from the elephants is my own design, but it will probably be when we get back from the UK at the end of March, beginning of April.  This may take a while though as I've never published a pattern before and haven't a clue yet how to start.  Interesting project!





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