But not all is quilted...

Really, I don't live, eat, and breath quilting. There wouldn't be much fun in that. This is my little knitting side project to keep me enjoying my quilting.

It's another baby blanket. My mom is making a flannel quilt for these particular friends, so I thought that making another flannel quilt would be redundant. The quilt she is making for this baby girl has a lot of blue flannel (with a delicate and lacy snow flake pattern; it can still be feminine even though it's blue) that contrasts strikingly with a rich burgundy print.

I decided to coordinate yarn colors with her flannel colors and switch from my traditional flannel baby blanket to a knitted blanket.

I really like this pattern. It's simple, unique, fast, and fun. All you do is group several yarns of different weights and textures together, and knit away on size 35 knitting needles. This time I used six strands: two normal weight red heart yarns (sorry I'm can't be more specific!), two light and lofty red heart yarns, one thin white baby yarn, and one crochet thread with dashes of silver to liven things up. I cast on 42 stitches and then knitted until I was pleased with how long the blanket was.

For this blanket I used the popcorn pattern (kk, pp, kk, pp, etc. then the next row you go: kk, pp, kk, pp, etc, but the next row is: pp, kk, pp, kk, etc., and the next one is pp, kk, pp, kk, ect). I have also done stripes doing two knitted rows, and two purled rows, two knitted rows, and two purled rows. I'm sure there are lots of other creative variations, but I haven't explored them. If you really want to do this, and I've completely confused you, let me know, and I will try to clarify. I am not primarily a knitter, and this is the first time I've tried to type out directions!