Baby Blanket Number Two

You saw Baby Blanket Number One here, and it's come a long way since I posted that picture.  But the baby to whom it will go isn't due until May, and the recipient of Baby Blanket Number Two is due any day now.  He'll be my nephew, and I wanted to do something really special for him.

I don't know how many patterns I searched on Ravelry, and I even googled "knitted baby blankets".  I bookmarked blogs and flipped through every knitting book and magazine on my shelf.  The Vogue Knitting Page-a-Day calendar came to my rescue on February 28th with the "cornflower rows" stitch pattern, a sweet little series of stockinette rows and garter ridges with alternating colors.

A generous gift certificate allowed me to choose Spud and Chloe Sweater, a worsted weight blend of cotton and superwash wool, in blue, orange, yellow, green and white.  Or, according to their website, Splash, Pollen, Firefly, Grass, and Ice Cream!  I found matching crayons and a sheet of graph paper, and got to work deciding in what order the colors would appear.

After a few rows and color changes, however, I worried that the curling stockinette sections would actually make the blanket shorter in length, so I ripped it out and searched yet again...  I settled on the Cotton Ease Baby Blanket, mitered-squares with picked-up edges so that you don't have to do any seaming.  You do, however, have to weave in a bazillion ends, which one Raveler who made this blanket described as "soul-crushing"...  The crayons came back out, and the yarn was cast on, and I'm loving this pattern!

Fortunately, it's Spring Break, so there will be plenty of time for knitting and mitering and weaving and waiting for Baby Number Two to make his appearance!