This blanket is a love letter to practice and mastery. My first Bairn blanket required meticulous row tracking & squinting at cable charts. The process of making it was interesting but not enjoyable per say, and by the end I was grateful I'd chosen to make the smaller size. A glutton for punishment, I decided to make one more larger throw for myself (I mean, the cable work *is* lovely). Turns out all that struggle had quietly translated into rote memory, and I could happily abandon my charts and instead enjoy the process of reading the work itself.
Pattern: Bairn Blanket by Brooklyn Tweed; KnitPicks Swish Worsted
Lessons: Be mindful and read patterns carefully, especially when repeating a project. I missed the repeats on the setup rows, which I realized while working the finishing rows.
Cables knit in the wrong direction can be salvaged by taking out the offending stitches and using a crochet hook, cable needle, and optimism to rework them.
If you're working on a large project and using small skeins, buy one more than you think you need. I was short a half skein, but thankfully had some leftovers from another project and KnitPicks dye lots are very consistent. Could've been a whole lot worse.
Knitting full size blankets is wonderful because you can use them for their intended purpose while making them.
Pro tip: I found cabling to be a pain for a long time because I couldn't find a cable needle that worked well for me. Hooked cable needles were a godsend.