Now for Something Completely Different

I explained in my last post about all the knitting that is going on surrounding my siste-in-law and her gestating twin baby girls, right? Right. And how I gave up on the idea of christening blankets, which turned out to be a good idea as I guess my mother-in-law had been wanting to do that anyway. So I guess everyone wins...?

Either way, I still needed something to knit. I wanted it simple after that monstrosity of a lace-weight lace blanket, but still in theme. This is kind of the idea the nursery is going: 

And it just so happened I had gray yarn in my stash from my master plan of knitting for babies. So I went rooting through my Ravelry and found this pattern which seemed appropriate: Radiating Star Blanket. I figured they would need actually warm blankets, this being Michigan, and the star pattern would fit in with the theme of the nursery, color- and shape-wise. It's knit in a circle, which is great for me, and it's mostly knit stich and yarn overs, with a few decreases to keep it even. I started in and everything was going swimmingly:

Isn't the star pretty? The problem came when I left the pattern at home for a day. I figured I knew more or less what was going on with the pattern of yarn overs and decreases, I wanted to knit, so I just kept going. Whoops. 

Not a bad whoops at all. See the pattern is supposed to cut out almost rectangular sections at regular intervals, like so:

From Ravelry user jackik71's Big Star

I got the first iteration started, but missed the turn off to start the one after that. Do you follow me? So there's the little star with 8 points, then a secondary bigger star off of that, then a third after that going out, with each section getting bigger but in the same general shape. Around the 3rd iteration they stop looking like petals or points and start looking more like rectangles. I missed that bit. So now I have the central star and the first points coming out from that:

See the star in the middle and the big points coming out from each pair?

All well and good, but now I'm off pattern. Do I try to get back on pattern, just with larger and larger sections each time? NO. Man that sounds like a lot of work. What I did instead was finish up the secondary points, then continue outward with the spiraling increases that actually increase the blanket's circumference. Don't worry, all will be clear by the time I knit a few more rounds. 

Look, it makes sense to me, it keeps life very very simple for this project, and I think it will make the star(s) in the middle more distinct anyway. Until I'm proved otherwise, we're going with this. 

I also need to get started on the project I'm actually SUPPOSED to be making as part of the mother/daughter-in-law swap. In lieu of blankets, they picked out these Christmas sweaters:

Modeled by the ugliest collection of baby dolls I have ever seen.

The twins are going to be November babies, so the Christmas sweaters will be their outfits for the first Christmas cards of their lives. Sister-in-Law H picked out the Christmas tree one:

With Sad Baby Doll model

and the snowman one: 

With Sleeping Baby Doll model

These were in an attempt to be gender neutral, as at the time she didn't know what they would be. The only alteration she wanted made was a red and white striped scarf, rather than gray. Whatever. 

Since I bought all the yarn and patterns for the blankets, my mother-in-law got the materials for the sweaters:

The Christmas tree yarn. Oddly named "Army Green", which doesn't seem quite right.

And the variety for the snowman. 

The hats, scarf, and booties I have no problem with. The problem I have is with the sweaters themselves. I think they're ugly. Seriously, set-in dropped shoulders on infants? Cardigans: great idea. Larger sizing so clothes go on easier: perfect. But sewing together and seaming up a sweater that small? Come on, give me a break. I am occasionally about challenges, but as we already found out, knitting is often something I want to be easy. There's enough stress and complication in my life without my knitting being irritating. So I'm scouting around for a different pattern that has sensible raglan shaping in the right gauge. 

No one will know the difference :)