FO Friday: Vinny's Mets Blanket

This was on Feb 17th...so big!  (Stolen from her facebook page)

My cousin Alyssa had a baby!  As in yesterday :o)  I, of course, procrastinated sending her baby blanket for little Vinny because I had to take a finished picture still.  But here it is:

I have to say, I really didn't like this project.  I love my design, but I do NOT like working with cotton yarn. The yarn had no hold for the intarsia.  I had to go back through almost every individual stitch and tighten it all up.  Ugh.  Cotton.  Unfortunately, they requested cotton since they live in Florida.  Next time, they're getting wool anyway hehe.

Another problem:  the blue bled into the white during blocking.  I don't know if the color bled from the knit work or from the ends that were still dangling in the back.

I thought about bleaching just those sections but that seemed a bit dangerous.  I thought about getting a Clorox bleach pen, but couldn't easily find one.  So I left it. Kyle said it looked like a shadow (my response: There is no shadow in the Mets logo!) and other said they didn't see it unless I pointed it out.  We'll see if my cousin notices on her own.

I have to make another (um, for myself this time) but with a better yarn choice.  The hardest thing is finding the right colors though for a sports team.  If anyone has suggestions I'm definitely listening :o)

Pattern:  My own
Project Page:  Mets Blanket
Needle:  US size 7
Yarn:  Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece

I can't leave you without some scrumptious baby pictures of course:

40 minutes old...thank you Skype!

And after seeing that belly, one must be wondering how big he was.  Only 6 lbs 11 oz!  But he is loooong.  He's going to be a tall tall boy :o)

Yet another baby blanket

So here it is.  The almost finished blanket I'm making for my soon-to-be new cousin.

We're big Mets fans in this family, especially my family in Florida.  They go to a bunch of Spring Training games each year, so baby Vinny will be all set and ready to go this March/April!

Dino thinks it's his blanket

 I used a cotton-wool blend since it doesn't get that chilly in Florida and especially since he'll be an almost spring baby.  This blanket doesn't seem to be coming out as big as I was hoping so he probably will only be able to use it for a year or two.  I didn't gauge at all so I guess I get was I deserve :o)

Why does blogger insist on rotating random pictures sometimes???

I was so not looking forward to dealing with this!  I spent all day Saturday weaving in ends.  But it wasn't just weaving I had to do.  I did a lot of pulling stitches.  Since the wool content is minimal in this yarn, I had a hard time keeping the stitch tension at the color changes consistent.  I had to go through almost every stitch inside the orange circle and tighten it all up.  Then I did the weaving.  It took me literally all day to get (I think) all the ends woven in.

Again with the random rotating pictures!

Looks like I missed some and I purposefully didn't weave a couple in yet.  I didn't cut the ends down all the way yet...not until after it's blocked.  I want to rough this up a bit and make sure the ends don't undo themselves.

On the knitting front, I have a couple more rows of stockinette stitch before the 20 row seed stitch border.  I might actually pick up stitches on either end to make the blanket longer.  Or I can stop having OCD and just let it be.  But it's really bothering me that the blanket is wider than it will be long.  Must. Stop. Obsessing.

Details:
Ravelry Page
Yarn:  Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece
Needles:  US 7
Pattern:  My own, unpublished as of now