The Framed Blanket baby blanket pattern is now available here (PDF file).

Just a quick reminder that if you want to order anything from the Shop, it will be closing from about 7pm (BST) today, until - hopefully - late November/early December, so that Bump can finally arrive, and we can get used to being parents for a while. :)

All orders that come in today, will go into the post on Monday morning (22nd September 08).

ETA: The pattern is now available for free here!

FO: Framed Blanket by Me
My Ravelry Post: here
Yarn: Sirdar Peru Naturals 5×50g balls, Turquoise-Brown (not that you can tell that from most of the photos. I probably should have opened the red curtains before I took the picture. *facepalm*) But basically any chunky single ply would work really well.
Approximate Cost: Just under £20, not including needle.
Needles: 8mm

Finished Size: Approximately 40″x34″

I really love that the blanket is reversable. Especially when it’s blocked, the ‘wrong side’ takes on a very similar look to the right side. And since the edging is knitting on, all the way around, (and garter stitch), there aren’t any raised seam edges or whatever that give away which is specifically the back and which is the front.

Notes: I have sleeping bags for the bump when it arrives but last week it suddenly occured to me that we would probably still find a blanket useful, for travelling, or napping, or when out and about. And I hadn’t actually bought any waffle blankets (which is kind of ridiculous given that I have full sized version for our bed, and single bed versions for around the house! But anyways…)

Plus I was in the mood to crank out a chunky blanket, and I’d spotted, and been really impressed by, Sirdar Peru, which is both wooly, and squishy.

Conclusion: At some point in the future (and I have added it to my ‘To Do’ list and everything!), I’ll try to sort out a PDF and make the pattern a free download, since it’s a quick-to-knit, useful pattern, and I’m pretty proud of it. :)

I’m at that point where I feel like I need to get a couple of projects on the go - or at least in the wings - for the next few weeks of (hopefully omg) resting and being very pregnant.

With that in mind I treated myself to a copy of Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne’s second book ‘Mason-Dixon Knitting, Outside the Lines‘.

I would have bought it anyways, given how much I love their first book, but I bought it early from amazon marketplace, rather than wait for the UK edition to come out (early next year, according to Amazon).

I’m impatient like that sometimes. :)

I’m still gobbling it up, but it’s superb. It’s funny, and clever and thoughtful, and it’s full of projects I want to make, or that inspire me to go off and riff my own version.

The Cardi-Cozy for example - ( and there are more photos on Ravelry, here) - takes two balls of kidsilk haze, and I just know it’s going to be very warm and yet also very light. And while I’m a tiny bit worried about the lack of curves, maybe being so light and sheer, that doesn’t matter? and anyways, given that it’s knit from the top down, I can modify as I go if necessary.

Plus two balls of kidsilk haze is about my limit. Any more and I want to tear my hair out. BUT I will admit it comes one of the best colour ranges I know, and a cardigan for £15, that I can see myself layering on for much of the winter, in hard to beat.

Thus I’m going to make my trip to the Bluestockings this evening stretch a little further and see if I can pick up the yarn from Port Meadow on the way.

This is superb, and might end up being a good use of all my half or lone balls of dk.

I think that I have the perfect yarn in my stash (as a jumper that I never wear, and which I intend to frog), for this jumper. It might mean I stop stealing W’s when the weather turns cold. (I love the almost-slash neck line and the cabled raglan increases.)

And - again with the stash busting - I love these trees, (along with the fact if I *want* to knit 24 and make an advent calendar, I don’t have to knit them all this year, given that Bump will be about 2 1/2 months and christmas will pass him/her by as a mass of cuddles from more distant and less mobile relatives, and little more. Half a dozen or so will still make a cute decoration for the sideboard. :)

All in all? Well it’s just as good as I was hoping it would be. They make me laugh out loud. :)

As of last Sunday I’m at 37 weeks, which means that the baby could come anytime in the next five weeks.

With this in mind, and given how much I seem to be capable of getting done at the moment (ie. less and less), I’m going to temporarily close the shop from the end of this friday, (19th September).

I’m sorry this is short notice, but I’m just concerned that things are going to get really messy if the baby comes early, and people are still able to put orders in. I would rather the shop wasn’t open, than someone put in an order and - in a worst case scenario - got radio silence from this end for a number of days.

I know - if I was that customer - I wouldn’t be happy about it.

I’m hoping to get the shop open again with new stock, before the end of November, but again, it depends when the baby arrives and what’s going on here. But I’ll make sure to keep everyone informed.

I really appreciate all your support over the last year or so in particular. I’m looking forward to getting things up and running again.