beginning a moderne baby blanket

Hi everyone! On Sunday 1/16/11 I began knitting the Moderne Baby Blanket published in Mason-Dixon Knitting. I highly recommend this inspirational book by Ann Shayne and Kay Gardiner; it is both unique and funny. The purpose of my Moderne Baby Blanket will be to use up some yarn-sale stash I bought a long time ago in baby colors and make something for my future kid(s).

Since I am such a procrastinator, I decided that in order to keep things rolling (and to try a new way to trick myself into working on the projects I start!) I will be posting sort of a follow-along with this specific project and my progress. Since the pattern is posted on Ravelry for free, I will be sharing my notes and modifications if I decide to make any. (Also, these posts will contain Ravelry links.)

Day 1 - Beginning the Blanket

I am using Bernat Softee Baby yarn, which is a DK weight and 100% acrylic (this is for a baby, people. think machine washable/dryable) in soft beige, soft fern, and fresh green.

The warm yellow yarn is actually pretty much the same yarn except it is called Bernat Satin Sport. I believe they just made the same yarn with a different name to separate it from the baby yarn market. Basically, what is in the picture is what I have. (This is supposed to be a stashbusting project. No purchasing allowed!)

The pattern says to use size 6 needles. I have nice wooden 7s that will work fine. A little bigger, a little quicker; especially since I knit tightly.

Make sure the first thing you do when you start a project is check the internet for ERRATA for the pattern. This is important. I checked the book out from the library so I would have had no idea that this very project has an error printed in the pattern. In our case, it is the 2nd paragraph for Block 9. What I did was just wrote the correction on a sticky note and stuck it right over the error in the book. Moving on.

Pay attention to special notes; in this case we have to make sure to pick up and bind off stitches on the right side (RS), better known as the front.

The blanket is supposed to measure 38" x 28" at the end (but who says we have to be perfect?) and it consists of 10 blocks.

I am so excited! Starting, I am doing my normal cast-on, long tail. Casting on 42 stitches. Here is a great video if you don't know how to do that.

Now all we do is knit every row! Garter stitch (easiest of easys)! Normally you would keep count of each row, but for this awesome easy project, you only need to count the ridges (the line of bumps that sticks up).

Block 1
Cast on 42 sts. Knit every row. Go until you have 36 ridges (so technically I think you'd have 72 rows).