Blocking Makes Everything Better

Behold, my first official knitted project which required blocking.

Op Art baby blanket in black and white CotLin yarn by Knit Picks.

 It was a fun, but long knit.  With a lot of ends to weave in.

I suggest making a cute tag to complete your gift.  It will distract the recipient from the flaws in your knitting.

Giving

I've been thinking about giving today.

It's no secret I love to give gifts...even more than I love receiving them.  Seeing the joy in the recipients eye is priceless, and does a body good.  Giving for no reason, other than "I'm thinking of you" is often the most rewarding.

But not all gifts have anything to do with money.  The gift of time can be the most precious gift of all.  Giving your time to help another, is not a favor that needs to be repaid, but can be a gift that you give yourself.  The feeling you have giving to another, whether a friend or stranger, is it's own reward.

Find a cause or a friend that could benefit from your gift of time, and give your time freely.  Trust me, you'll feel fantastic.

Ahead of Schedule

I've been working on a special knitty gift for a new little gal that I'm going to meet this weekend.  She was born a few weeks early--totally healthy, but this necessitated increased knitting time.  STAT!

This morning I figured out I had 30 rows to go...and that each row was taking me over 20 minutes to complete.  So I ambitiously decided that I had about 10 hours of knitting left to complete this gift.  Where was I going to get 10 hrs?  PLUS I need to block this gift and since this will be my first knitted item that requires blocking, who knows how long it will take to dry?  Nevermind.  I put aside the daunting time commitment, and was determined to finish knitting between tonight and tomorrow night.

I'm knitting along tonight and quickly realized that I would run out of my black yarn before completing the final 18 black rows...I got 12 completed.  I hopped on ravelry to see if anyone else had this problem.  I mean, I know I didn't check my gague (No chastizing, Katie!), but I shouldn't be out of yarn?!?!?  After searching many forum posts I finally click on the link for the pattern.

Way at the bottom I find this:

Errata from Designer: Errata:
The smaller size blanket should end after the line:
Work 16 rounds B. 552 sts
working the additional 2 stripes results in running out of yarn.

No kidding.

I've cast off, so instead of knitting for hours tomorrow night, I'll be weaving in ends, and researching wet blocking.  It feels great to be ahead of schedule!