I have started knitting a blanket - a baby blanket as a matter of fact. It is my first baby project for my baby surprise - good going indeed as I don't think I ever finished anything for the other two before they were born.
The pattern is called Hansel and is a traditional Shetland Hap shawl designed by Gudrun Johnson (The Shetland Trader). Traditionally a hap was a shawl or cover up for every day wear and warmth thus differing from the more intricate Shetland lace shawls often used for Christening shawls.
The pattern consists of a central garter stitch square. This is knitted on the diagonal, increasing a stitch per row to a point (144 stitches in this case), before decreasing again, thus forming the square. I've now progressed on the knitted border which is providing me with a lot of pleasure and fun! The shawl is essentially square but the border is knitted on in the round! This took me a while to get my head around, but it is a most efficient way of adding a border as there will be no seams for me to join at the end :-). I am constantly amused though at how this piece of knitting produced by my needles is becoming more and more voluminous - I feel as if I'm knitting a parachute or bucket!
My central square is grey as is the first part of the border. I've just started adding the colour sequence into it and have decided on a relatively gender neutral colour scheme. Initially I had decided to hold out until my 20-week scan before choosing colours thinking reds and purples for a girl or greens and blues for a boy. However, the knitting of the shawl has become a relative addiction and I couldn't take a break from it - patience isn't a virtue I have in great abundance. I've settled on a scheme of teal, blue, green and dark purple so hopefully it will work whether the baby is pink or blue.
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