You know, for a post that doesn’t have a lot of words in it, this project sure took me a looooooong time to complete. I decided that this would be the year I learned to knit. (I make these kinds of royal decrees all the time, thankfully usually only the dogs are around to hear them….) I had a long road trip coming up and I thought I could pick up an easy project and make some serious progress on the drive. This pattern from the Purlbee seemed like just the ticket – I mean it’s got the words “super easy” right in it! 
Let’s just say that I did not make tons of progress on my road trip, in fact, it took me SEVERAL months to tackle this monster. But it got done. So no welcoming of the baby, but in time for baby’s first Christmas!
Here’s what I learned:
- I am a slow knitter.
- Driving while knitting a first project = lots of dropped stitches. Only I didn’t know what those were at the time, so I just called them delightful holes.
- Ripping out 20 rows of stitching and then trying to remember how to cast on was a good idea in that I accidentally cast on fewer stitches so it made my blanket almost pattern width (rather than 50 stitches too wide)
- I am remarkable efficient at adding stitches to my work accidentally. How do you think it got to be 50 stitches too wide?
- Knitting a wool blanket on planes is a great way to pass the time and an excellent way to ward off the plane chill unless you are in a middle seat sitting on the tarmac in Dallas in the middle of August when they decide to cut the air conditioning. Then it seems like a TERRIBLE idea.
- Everyone on a plane wants to know when you are knitting. Best guess I heard was scarf (When I was on my last skien of yarn.) Really dude? That’s one hell of a giant scarf. Make nice with these people anyway, you will need their help when you drop your ball of yarn.
- I did get faster as the project went along, but I still wasn’t fast enough to start a row when the plane landed and finish it by the time we got to the gate in Austin.
- I hate stopping in the middle of a row.
- Two seasons of Downton Abbey = tremendous progress on the knitting project.
- The internet is a terrible place to look for knitting help when you don’t know the name of the stitch you are doing. It’s garter stitch. And it’s now my favorite.
- The best gift of all is giving a gift to a friend who you know will appreciate it. Laura, you have my permission to steal this blanket from your child on use it for yourself.
With all that, I will say this project is super easy. You know, after I figured out what the crap I was doing.
Full details on yarn and the project on my Ravelry page 
Here are some pictures of the in process work because there is no greater joy than celebrating the start of a new color…..especially when you have like four more colors to go after it. 
–Martta
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I freehand piped the chevrons which ended up slightly uneven at the back, but pretty good for not laying it out beforehand! I wish I’d make the pinks a bit darker, so you could really see the color gradient, but overall I was pleased with the effort.
Definitely worthy of a celebration of a new little baby! 
– Martta
