Knitters Conventions and Baby Blankets

Just got back from several days in Chicago, so I'm behind on my goal of posting 1-2 times per week.  Had a great time there, though!  My husband and I went as a belated anniversary trip, hitting Fogo de Chao (amazing Brazilian steakhouse), going to Second City, and seeing a game at Wrigley Field.

On our way back, I was able to go to the market at Stitches Midwest, a knitting convention that happened to be near Chicago the same weekend.  I love going to the knitting conventions.  Most of the time, I'm able to walk away spending less than $100 (which is pretty good for me!) since I have so much yarn at home I could practically open up my own store right now.  This was the biggest one I had been to, and I'm very tempted to travel to one of the other Stitches conventions that will be happening later this year and early next year so I can take some classes as well.  I walked away from this one with some jewelry and very large quantities of Panda yarn, which is one of my favorite yarns to knit socks with.  

Today, I want to show off a blanket I made for a friend's baby.  I found the pattern at freepatterns.com, Baby Blocks Blanket, and made this using Louisa Harding yarn, Denim and Tan in Albero, Light Green in Kashmir Baby, and Light Gold in Kashmir DK. Unfortunately I'm having trouble uploading the pictures of my finished product, so while I keep working on that, here is the photo from the pattern to give you an idea.

This was an easy project (to a point) because the squares were all just knit back and forth.  This was great to knit while watching TV or movies because it didn't require a ton of concentration.  The hard part was sewing the squares together.  I had to safety pin the rows together and use the whip stitch going around.  This took a lot more concentration because I wanted to make sure all the stitches were as even as possible.  It was so much fun to make though, frustrations aside, that I may make it again when someone else has a baby.

My only regret with this blanket was that I wasn't cautious enough about what yarn I used.  I love Louisa Harding yarn and thought it fit into the blanket beautifully, but the light gold Kashmir DK is hand wash only and I didn't realize that until after I fnished the blanket!  Luckily, the friend I gave this to was absolutely fine with having to hand wash it, but that's a big lesson for me for next time - If it goes near a kid, it needs to be machine washable!

You can check out this and other patterns I've used on Ravelry.com, user name is Mehan212.