Rainbow Baby Blanket

Pattern/Technique: Self drafted. Cast on 100 stitches in a waste color, then knit 38 rows of each rainbow panel.

Materials: US 10.5 knitting needle

1 skein each of Knit Picks Chroma Twist Bulky in the following colors: Red Velvet, Get your Neon, Weather Vane, Hollyhock, Lupine, Surf’s Up, Lake Front

Lessons/Notes: I was originally going to edge this blanket in a dark grey, but opted to not do that out of concern that the edging yarn might differentially stretch/shrink vs. the main blanket with usage and washing.

Because I cast on with waste yarn and used the entire ball of red for the first section, I ended up using some waste Get Your Neon to bind off along the red section. It’s a little different tonally than Red Velvet because it includes orange, but still looked pretty nice.

What I'd do differently: The color of this yarn is lovely, but in the future I would probably not use a handwash yarn for a baby blanket given its impracticalities for new parents.

Care: Hand wash, dry flat

Moving Forward Wrap

Pattern/Technique: Moving Forward Wrap by Denise Bayron

Modifications: none

Materials: 3 skeins A Verb for Keeping Warm Floating in Current

US5 needles (for cast on / bind off), US4 needles for main fabric

Wet blocked using blocking wires

New skills: German Twisted Cast on, Modified Icelandic Bind Off

Lessons: I wasn't sure which bind off to use, as the pattern didn't provide a recommendation, and I was a concerned using a standard knit bind off given the yarn overs and center double decrease on the knit side. I looked through other knitters' projects on Ravelry (and learned you can filter by projects with notes & projects marked helpful—incredibly useful) and found weckum's recommendation to use a modified Icelandic bind off. I used this tutorial from Strands of Life.

Floating doesn't have much elasticity (but drapes beautifully) so I changed yarn balls at the edges because I figured the loose ends would be easier to hide along the edges. I also tried to change balls in stockinette/garter sections to facilitate weaving in the ends.

What I'd do differently: I might make this in a springy yarn (like AVFKW Flock) to get a slightly stiffer fabric to really accentuate the points in the chevron.

Care: Hand wash, lay flat to dry.