Here's to Baby Rose Ella!

We have had a glorious week at the Coastal Condo except for my Spartans getting beat in the Final Four.  Dick and I have gone to many Final Fours but this year we decided to celebrate in peace and quiet at our favorite home away from home.  Well, to be honest, I'm not too sad.  After all we beat Michigan 3 times AND beat Duke to get into the Final Four.  I have been very busy here knitting for a very special person.  Michelle is a knitter at Ann's By Design.  Two years ago she taught herself to knit and there has been no stopping her.  She is a regular at the round table of social knitting on Fridays.  In the fall, Michelle told us she was pregnant and due in March.  March seemed like such a long time into the future.  When we were at the Coastal Condo in January, I decided I needed to find the perfect yarn for a baby cocoon.  This is what It found.

I fell in love with the yarn then found the pattern for the cocoon.

Then I fell in love with it more and decided to do a headband.

Then I fell in love with it even more and decided to design a baby blanket.  My last trip to Knit 'N Purl in January was to purchase enough of the Comfort and Baby Bamboo to make a baby blanket.  I got the Comfort but they didn't have enough Baby Bamboo AND IT WAS A DISCONTINUED COLOR!!!!!!  Martina came to the rescue.  She said she would go through her distributor to see what other shops had purchased that color and maybe she could find enough.  We left the Coastal Condo, winter started and I decided to finish Mosaic Mania.  I forgot all about the Baby Bamboo and the beautiful blanket I was going to make for Baby Rose.  One day a package came.  I wasn't expecting anything but there is such a thing as backorder.  I looked at the address; it was definitely a yarn shop but not one I'd ever heard of.  I was flummoxed to say the least.  I opened the package and there was Baby Bamboo.  Out of the blue, Baby Bamboo.  Remember how much I love literation and rhyming?  I really did get side tracked from Baby Rose's gifts.  There was Mosaic Mania and the Dissent Cowl.  But Michelle wasn't due until March.  All of a sudden, it was March and Michelle was having a baby.  I decided I better get to work.  We had an impromptu baby shower the first time Michelle and Rose were able to come in.  What a great surprise!  The blanket wasn't finished but the headband and cocoon were.  On the way down I pretty much finished the baby blanket.  After we were at the Coast I hid the ends.  And this is what it looked like.

I started in the corner with five stitches and added one stitch on each side every other row.  The pattern is a simple mosaic: 2 rows of baby bamboo in garter stitch, 4 rows in Comfort with K 3 SL1 across.  When it was as wide as I wanted I began to decrease 1 on the left side every other row.  When it was as long as I wanted I decreased 1 on both sides every other row.  When I was finished I decided I wanted fufu around the edge and the remedy was to pick up stitches around the edge then bind off in picot bind off.  Wait!  What if I got my stitches picked up and bound off only to discover I had too few stitches and it pulled or too many stitches and it bunched?!?!?!?!  I love to create my own solution to knitting puzzles.  I also was concerned that one small ball of Baby Bamboo wouldn't finished the picot bind off and I'd have to add another ball.  A join on the edge of the blanket wouldn't be a good thing.  My solution was: I picked up stitches along one edge, attached another ball and did the picot band off.  After I was done, I spread the blanket out to see how the stitches looked.  To quote the three bears, "They were just right."  I counted the stitches and went onto the next side.  I picked up stitches, did picot bind off and checked how it looked.  Now I knew exactly how many stitches I needed to pick up on the other two sides.  WaLa!

Now that my gift giving knitting is done, I can go back to my Fearless Knitting.  Wait until you see what I have been working on!  I can't wait to see Baby Rose tucked in her cocoon, wrapped in her blanket with her headband.