A Baby blankie for father’s day
June 22, 2009 by Noreen Crone-Findlay
Filed under knitting
This Father’s Day was extra special for us, as it is the first one that we get to celebrate the grandbaby that our daughter and her husband are building! 
I wanted to make a presie for my much loved son-in-law that would be a special reminder of his first Father’s Day.
photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright
It seemed to me that people always make lovely baby stuff for the mother to be, but why not for the Daddy to be?
So, I cast on a pile of stitches on my knitting machine and started working a simple circular baby wrap.
I used to make circular baby shawls by the dozen for my kids when they were wee, but I couldn’t remember exactly how many stitches to start with.
I started by casting on 120 stitches, and that was too many, so after I knitted the first segment, I frogged it.
The shawl is worked in short row, triangular wedge shapes, and progresses in a circle.
Second time, I cast on 50 stitches, and then worked 15 of the wedge shapes, alternating white with turquoise baby yarn.
I flipped the almost finished shawl up onto the machine so you could see how the triangular sections create a circle.
You do have to gather the center, as it is open when you finish stitching the last row to the first row.
photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright
I love designing and knitting lace on the knitting machine, because I find it so easy to see exactly what needs to happen in each row.
I’ll write out a chart if anyone would like it….
See the needle at the far left? The one that is pulled all the way out?
That’s the one that I pick up the edge stitch on to add the lace border as I go.
I also weave in all the ends as I work the border, by wrapping the ends around the picked up stitch.
The next pic is a close up of the wrapping and picking up process….
photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright
After the blankie is completed, it has to be steamed and lightly pressed to make the lace border lay flat.
Then, of course, it’s time to wrap it up and give it to the new Daddy-to-be!
photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright
This blankie is quite small…. only about 26 or 27 inches across. I like to have a mix of sizes for baby blankies, so will be making lots more of them for the baby……. will post more pics and if people want me to write out a full pattern, I can do that…..
I would love to see the pattern and bigger photos of this. I especially love the edging! Very cute.
It’s a wonderful blanket – and he was so thrilled to get it
Hi Chloe- Thanks!
I am so pleased that he is happy with it! It was made with a LOT of love!
Hi Liz
I’ll work on a pattern when I make the next blankie/shawl…. and promise better pics. I vastly under-estimated the amount of time that I needed to complete the blankie, so will give myself more time for the next one!
And, will chart the lace then, too!
That lace edging is JUST the thing that brought me to this page! I’m desperately looking for a machine knit lacey edging the put on a blanket I just finished knitting today – and need to get in the mail by friday! You wouldn’t happen to have charted the lace part out in such a way that a novice machine knitter just figuring out the lace carriage would understand would you?
Hi Artsygal
I had my week’s postings all planned out and have been working away like mad on them.
BUT… I hear your need…. so have spent the afternoon working on designing an easy to make lace border. My much loved old knitting machine doesn’t have a lace carriage, so what I am doing is super simple, but is looking very pretty. I know, I should have written down what I did for the first shawl, my bad….. (and it’s gone to DD & SIL’s house, an hour away, so it’s easier to just start from scratch)
I’ll post the pattern and tute for you later this evening.
Alrighty!
Noreen
I have designed an edging and posted the chart and a tutorial for it at:
http://www.blisstree.com/hankeringforyarn/a-lace-edging-worked-on-a-knitting-machine/