Mountain Laurel Crib Counterpane

Recipient: Cooper Matthew Gelman
Designer: Kim Brody Salazar
Pattern: Mountain Laurel Crib Counterpane
Source: wiseNeedle pattern collection
Completed: July 9, 2005
Colours: Turquoise
Yarn: 100% acrylic, worsted weight
Completed status: Baby born July 8, 2005 - given July 2005
Pictures:

completed blanket


'artistic' shot

2005-Aug-4

When we were at my parents' place for dinner earlier this week I asked my mom if she'd given the baby's maternal grandparents (who live in the same condo building as my parents) the blanket so that it could be passed on to the baby's parents. My mom said yes, it had, and that the gift had been given to the parents, and opened. Apparently, said grandparents went into transports of delight upon seeing the blanket, and the grandfather wanted to know if I would make one in grownup size for him. :) I have no idea if the parents liked the blanket (my mom forgot to ask), but at least somebody related to the baby did, so that's good. :)

2005-Jul-9

After much agony, I had to bow to what my soul was telling me - there was no way I could give the blanket as it was. It just looked ridiculous. I was forced to do the border over again, this time long enough so that the blanket could lie flat. The question was, could I do the border in the same turquoise as the body and not run out of yarn?

Using my trusty postage scale, I weighed how much of the turquoise yarn I had left, and the amount that I had used in the border. Based on this, I concluded that I could safely add 12 more border pattern repeats to the border without running out of yarn. I also took some measurements and figured that the addition of these 12 pattern repeats would probably be enough to let the blanket lie flat. And I decided to rejig the way I was knitting the borders around the corners so there would be more 'give' and less 'stretch' there. Once I had all this information under my belt, I started again, this time picking up (so help me) 544 stitches all around the edge of the blanket.

Panic REALLY set in yesterday when my mom called me to tell me that the baby had been born that morning! (No name that we know of yet, but we do know it's a boy and that everyone is healthy. YAY!) I started really knitting like mad and finished this afternoon. The border looks sooo much better. I am very, very pleased.

2005-Jul-5

The border is done. It is way too small. I do not have a blanket, I have (as DH so helpfully pointed out) a fitted sheet. (This actually filled me with glorious inspiration for a few minutes as I thought, "Hey...what if I told the parents it was a fitted sheet? For, say, a standard-size playpen?" Then I went and got our standard-size playpen to see how well it would fit, and, well, it doesn't. So much for that. And it's way too small for a standard-size crib mattress. At least, I think so. Hey, maybe I should try the blanket on our standard-size crib mattress just to see. But I have little hope.) I've laid the thing out and I really don't think blocking would work. I may actually end up ripping aaaaall the border out and doing it again. Sob.

2005-Jul-4

I was supposed to be finished this by yesterday. I am not. It's getting very close, and I do expect to be finished before the end of the day, but it ain't done yet. This morning it looked like this:

Can you see why the approaching done-ness doesn't fill me with joy and elation? Notice how the blanket is kind of loosely rumpled but the border is stretched? Yeah. I've done hours and hours of work on this damn border and come really close to running out of yarn, only to discover that I didn't pick up enough stitches around the edge of the blanket to begin with. F**k. The tragedy is that even if I were to rip out all my hours and hours of border work (and I can't tell you how much I am so NOT keen on that idea) and pick up enough additional border stitches so that it would all look good when done, the extra stitches would probably mean that I'd run out of yarn. Oh, but more Baycrest Sayelle yarn went up on eBay over the weekend...in beige. Sob. Maybe blocking will help...

2005-Jun-30

Yep, I'm definitely screwed. My math calls for 60 pattern repeats to go all the way around the blanket, and by this morning I'd finished almost 8.

I really like the way the way that border looks! However, the ball of yarn I was using was half gone (I weighed it to see), and I only have one more ball of yarn after that. So, even though I had 7/8 of the border left to do, I had already used up 1/4 of my remaining yarn supply. Not. Good. Therefore, this morning in the car I ripped the entire border back (sob), and started again with a narrower version. There are no pointy edges on this new border, just the braid. Also, there don't need to be so many [SSK, YO] repeats between the braid and the blanket edge. This new border stands a better chance of getting me all the way around the blanket with the yarn I have, but I'm still extremely skeptical. We'll see where I am once the first ball of yarn runs out. One thing is for sure - the schedule for this project is now shot to hell. There's no way I'm going to finish the border by the end of this weekend, especially if I end up having to rip it all back again. This could get ugly.

2005-Jun-29

Sadly, another day without pictures. I woke up late and DD woke up early - a sure-fire recipe for morning chaos. Plus, DD wanted to spend her extra awake time this morning 'watching the baby in the television', aka 'Mummy plays old videos of DD from the camcorder'. You try downloading pictures from a camcorder which is being used to keep your toddler happy while you run around the house like a maniac getting ready for the day. Go on, I dare ya. Anyway, so no pictures, sorry, even though I have started the border and it looks pretty darn good. However, the reason I think I'm screwed is that I have two 50g balls of the yarn to do the border with and I really don't think that's gonna cut it. I originally thought I stood a good chance, but I'm looking at how wide this border is, and my optimism is gooooone. I'll keep going just in case, but I have no idea what I'm going to do if I run out. This is old yarn, boy howdy, from the days when The Bay used to sell craft supplies. (The label says "Baycrest, Sayelle Knitting Worsted", and just to rub it in, also contains the fateful words, "Please purchase sufficient yarn of the same dye lot number to complete your garment.") There ain't no way I can get more. (Although I did go on eBay just now to see if maybe anyone was selling some, and it turns out that there is indeed a person selling six balls of it...in completely the wrong colour.) And this blanket really must have a border. So I'm thinking I'll have to fall back on that white worsted I was thinking of using for the blanket in the first place. That wouldn't look too too bad, would it? Turquoise blanket with a white border? Someone reassure me here...

2005-Jun-28

Today is the day slotted for trying the math I worked out for the border. Therefore, this morning I packed my copious notes, the blanket, my longest circular needle, a 7mm DPN for my working needle, and a bunch of stitch and row markers to help me count all the stitches. I picked up stitches all through my commute and my lunch (hey, it takes a while to pick up 464 stitches at very precise intervals). I was greatly looking forward to actually doing some knitting on the commute home instead of all this dumb picking-up of stitches. Until it hit me like a ton of bricks. Have you spotted the problem yet? I did not remember to pack any yarn. Of all the dumb knitting mistakes I have ever made, this has got to take the cake (with the possible exception of the time a few weeks ago when I forgot to pack needles). How, praytell, is one supposed to knit if one does not bring the frickin' yarn?

2005-Jun-27

The sewing is DONE.

I love it. I think it looks awesome. Next: the border. The instructions say to knit the border separately (in one long, thin strip), working as much border as you need to go around the blanket, and then to sew it in place after the fact. To hell with that, I say. I will instead be picking up stitches all around the blanket and knitting the border on as I go. Since the border needs to end at the same point in the pattern repeat where it began (so I can sew the cast-on edge to the cast-off edge and have the whole border look as seamless as possible), and since there are some corners to go around, and since I am (let's face it) pretty anal, I need to be quite precise about how many stitches to pick up, and where. I've already done some math that seems right, but since I don't really trust myself to figure it out correctly the first time, I expect to be able to regale you in the coming days with amusing stories of mathematical disasters.

2005-Jun-24

All pieces are DONE. Now the hold-the-nose-and-sew part has begun. As of early this morning, the blanket had begun to come together:

And it's even bigger now. All thirteen hexagons have been sewn closed and pieced together, plus two of the half-hexagons. Just eighteen more seams to go and I have a blanket ready for a border. It's all good.

2005-Jun-23

All the half-hexagons are now done. Yippee! As well, the second edge triangle has been completed, and I'm working on the third. I'm hoping to finish all four edge triangles by the end of the day. Then I can start sewing everything together. I'm seriously considering the three-needle bind-off to piece everything together and thus avoid most of the sewing. It'll take longer, but at least it will be knitting (which I like) instead of sewing (which I find mind-numbingly dull).

2005-Jun-22

All hexagons are now complete! Yay! Plus, I finished the third half-hexagon at lunch today and started the fourth (and last) one. When that's done, I'll have just three edge triangles left to do. Completion is within my grasp, I can almost smell it. I laid out all the pieces last night and it looked like this:

2005-Jun-21

Finished hexagon #12, and am casting off on hexagon #13. There's a chance I could be finished all pieces by the end of tomorrow. Then the sewing will begin. I cannot tell you how much I am not looking forward to that part.

2005-Jun-20

Now that my co-worker's baby present and DH's Father's Day socks are done, this is the next project that has to be finished. I'm aiming for the end of June. So far, all I've done is to get a little bit further on hexagon #12, but I expect to finish that and start hexagon #13 (the last full hexagon!) before the day is through.

2005-May-27

Finished off full hexagon #11 in the car this morning and started work on #12. I'm probably going to ease off on this for a while as I panic-knit on the celtic cable sweater instead.

2005-May-26

I'm casting off on full hexagon #11. The layout is really starting to look genuinely impressive.

2005-May-24

It occurred to me after my last blog entry to count the hexagons in the most recent picture. There were only 7. I got really confused, because I thought I'd made 8. I went back to the project, and sure enough, I had neglected to include hexagon #8 in the layout shot. Damn. Oh, well. I'll include it in the next picture. Anyway...I finished half-hexagon #2 and am now well into full hexagon #9.

2005-May-22

No progress, but I finally took a picture of the current layout:

2005-May-20

Newly complete: Half hexagon #1 and full hexagon #8. I'm now working on half hexagon #2. I wanted to take a picture this morning of the updated blanket layout, complete with seven full hexagons, but sadly I spent too much time laying it out and ran out of time to actually take and download the picture. Sigh. But don't worry, more pictures for the blog will happen very soon.

2005-May-18

Now working on hexagon #7.

2005-May-17

I'm approaching the end of hexagon #5.

2005-May-16

I finished hexagon #4 over the weekend, and also did one of the edge triangles. I've determined that one skein of the yarn will yield 2 hexagons and over half an edge triangle. So I am pretty sure I'll have enough (I forget for sure how many skeins I have in total, but my memory is telling me thirteen - if that's true, I'm not worried about running out). I laid out the pieces I've made so far to see how it looks - not bad:

2005-May-15

I have three hexagons done now, and am about halfway through #4! I also sewed up one of the hexagons just to make sure that it wouldn't look like total crap when it was finished (I figured I'd better do that now instead of waiting until after I'd flat-knitted all thirteen hexagons). It looked pretty darn good. Hexagons continue.

2005-May-10

Finished the first worked-flat hexagon yesterday and started on the second one. It looks excellent:

Moreover, worked with the 7mm needles, the hexagon is big enough that I can definitely get away with doing fewer component pieces and still have a good-sized blanket.

2005-May-9

There was no point taking the Snowdrop project along to work today. There's probably not enough left to do on it to fill a whole day's worth of commuting time, and the work that does have to be done is pretty fiddly - I'd rather do it at home. So, the logical move was to continue one of my summer deadline projects. I've been procrastinating on this blanket because of the PITA factor - wrestling with the Magic Loop using a stiff 7mm circular needle on a lacy project is not, I have discovered, my idea of fun. So this morning I tried another approach: knitting the hexagon flat, and adding one selvedge stitch at each side so I could sew it up when finished. So far it is working bee-yew-tifully - I am just flying through the damn hexagon, as opposed to the slow crawl I was achieving by working in the round. Result: I am enthused about the project again, and might actually be able to work quickly enough on it to complete it in time.

2005-Feb-18

I got a few more rows done on this while DH was preparing supper last night. Nothing to write home about. (But enough to blog about, obviously.)

2005-Feb-17

Held my nose and started another sample hexagon last night, with 7mm needles. So far it's very, well, awkward. Also, I seem to have a bit of laddering going on on one side. Bleagh. But I'll keep going and see how the whole thing turns out. So far it doesn't look so great, but then again, none of the hexagons have looked terribly impressive this early in the game:

2005-Feb-3

No progress, but I do have a picture of my first hexagon attempt:

2005-Jan-20

Now I'm getting frustrated. I'm comparing my hexagons to the picture of the completed blanket in the pattern, and my yarn-overs are obviously way too small. Plus, there doesn't appear to be any appreciable size increase in the hexagon I did on the larer needles. So, I'm going to try even larger needles and work on loosening up my YOs. However, I am getting pretty tired of the setbacks on this project so I didn't bring it to work with me today. I will set it aside for a little while so I can come back to it with renewed enthusiasm.

2005-Jan-19

I finished one of the hexagon pieces. It looks great. It also hit me last night that the shape of the flower in the hexagon pattern is a Star of David. This realization melted away any lingering doubt I might have had about whether I should really be making this pattern for this baby, since the family is Jewish. (My mother sank my enthusiasm for the project quite a bit on Monday night when she realised I'd have to sew all the pieces together - "Oh no, Kathleen, you don't want to do that. Pick another project." Gee, thanks, Mom. Actually, my mom really is great, but every now and then she does slip up and give me commands instead of advice. It's annoying, but what can you do.) The hexagon piece I made is unfortunately smaller than I would like, so now I'm making another hexagon piece on a larger needle. We'll see how that goes.

2005-Jan-18

More waffling. I remembered that I had scads of worsted weight acrylic in a cheery turquoise colour (horrendous for adults, but perfect for babies) which I got for free from that woman in my mom's building who was giving away her knitting stuff. Whereas I would have eventually had to go out and get more of the white worsted I was planning to use originally. But then I went and got the turquoise yarn, and it didn't seem all that thick. So now I'm undecided again. To resolve all of this, I'm trying out one of the hexagon pieces to get an idea of how big the blanket will turn out to be. If the hexagon ends up too small, I will either have to use a thicker yarn, or suck it up and make all the pieces that the pattern calls for. So far it's hard to tell how big the hexagon is going to end up being, but the pattern is looking lovely.

2005-Jan-17

I am pretty much set on doing the Mountain Laurel Crib Counterpane pattern for this baby. But I'm going to change it up slightly - I'm going to use worsted weight instead of the sportweight that the pattern calls for, and I'm not going to make as many pieces to sew together. Even with the thicker yarn, this will probably make the blanket smaller, but since the original pattern produces a 4-foot-by-3-foot blanket, I'm not worried. All of the baby blankets I've made have been much smaller than that. I will be working the pattern in white acrylic, and I expect it will look very sweet.

2005-Jan-13

My mom told me this morning that my ex (whose in-laws play bridge on Wednesday nights with my parents, hence my access to the following piece of news) is expecting baby #2 in July! Huge surprise! I'm very happy for them. This may be the excuse I was looking for to make Kim Brody Salazar's Mountain Laurel Crib Counterpane. Isn't it beautiful?