The Big Bad Baby Blanket project is underway.

I've revised it slightly. Originally I wanted to produce and exact replica of this one:

I was having a hard time finding yarn in the exact colors, so I was going to substitute some, but the yarns I was going to substitute had a different texture than the original ones and I didn't like that.  So, I tried to find some yarn in a similar color and texture and couldn't find it so I decided to go ahead with what I had.....but balked at it because I wasn't happy with it.  I knew that I wanted to back it with fabric and make it more like a quilt than a simple knitted blanket, but I just didn't like the yarn or the textures.

So, I put it down for a while and tried to figure out how I was going to make it work. 

I was knitting with a ribbon yarn called 'stained glass' a couple of weeks ago, admiring the bright pinks and greens and purples and turquoises that were combined in in it...and suddenly it came to me.  I should use those colors in the Big Bad Baby Blanket.  I knew that I already had some of the colors required, and I also knew where I could get more of the same yarn in different colors.  So, I got out my graph paper and markers and started making different color combinations.  I went through 5 or 6 pages before I came up with a pattern that I really liked.  I showed it to Dave, and HE liked it - and that was my cue to go with that combination.

Now all I had to figure out was what needle size and type to use.  The yarn manufacturer recommended a size 8 needle, but I thought that a smaller one would be better - this blanket is backed with fabric, so I needed to make it denser than a regular baby blanket otherwise it would stretch out of place and look awful.  I knitted a swatch in a size 6, and it was too dense.  So, I tried a 7 and found it to be just right.  Needle problem solved!

So, I got my colors all lined up, and I cable cast-on the stitches.  I was so excited to knit the first set of combinations to see how they looked that I sat and knitted the entire thing in one day (that's just the first color combination, not the entire blanket).

It looked wonderful.  I love the way the yarn knits up, I love the size of the stitches, I love the color combinations....I just love the entire thing.  I'm getting attached to it; I get up and hurry through my chores so that I can work on it and see it grow and become ever more beautiful in my hands.   I still have to find a fabric for the back of it, but I don't think I'll have a problem with that.  I saw some fabric yesterday that I think will work wonderfully - I'll just have to take the blanket to the store with me so that I can accurately match the colors.

Jill wrote an article this morning about how she feels so blessed to be pregnant, to feel her daughter moving and growing insider her - and I feel the same way about this Big Bad Baby Blanket that's destined to wrap itself around Jill's baby.  Just as Jill is growing her baby with love, so I am growing this baby blanket with love.  I think about this new little person-to-be, this girl-child that's going to come into this world having already captivated hearts, as I sit and knit the stitches of her blanket.  I think about how much she is loved and wanted, and how when her mother wraps her in this blanket that's growing in my hands she will literally be wrapping her in love.  Love from my soul that found it's way into my fingers and on into the yarn.   

This little girl has a lot of love.  She was created out of love, she is being grown with love, and she will be surrounded by love when she makes her grand entrance into this reality we call our world. 

And she will have a Big Bad Baby Blankets to call her very own.

P.S. Tex, as soon as you find out what you're having, I'm going to make your new little dude or dudette a 'Bad Ass Baby Blanket'......