Secret Knit Revealed

Shortly before Christmas, I planned a surprise gift for our friends Mr. & Mrs. SDC. SDC junior was due to be born in March, and, being the son of a fellow cyclist, I wanted him to have a special and unique blanket.

I'd discovered a charted bicycle on Ravelry, and heard about knitting graph paper, and found some letters charted on a cross-stitch site...though I'd never really designed a project before, I thought I'd give it a go.

 

This blanket was a challenge in so many ways, with gauge math, and learning duplicate stitch, and realizing that duplicate stitch takes a LOT longer than you think it will. Thankfully, I finished the blanket just before SDC Jr. arrived, and he now has something to keep him warm in his stroller as his dad and mom make the rounds of the spring bike races. All the other baby cyclists will know which team is his favorite!

N.B. The owner of the yarn shop where I purchased the yarn suggested backing the blanket with a piece of pre-washed/pre-shrunk flannel. The design is not reversible, so if you decided to do something like this, I wanted to pass the suggestion along. Since I don't know how to sew, and the duplicate stitch kept the backing pretty neat, I left it as is.

Comments

[sprite]

Awww! What a special gift! I bet they love it!

[Sheepish Annie]

Oh, wow. That is fantastic!, A lot of work, but certainly worth every minute!

[Kristen]

What a unique baby gift; it looks wonderful! I find duplicate stitch relaxing, much more so than the dreaded intarsia. Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. SDC and baby.
I hope you post more about what you've been up to- I've missed you!

[2paw]

How wonderful and yes, you can back your knitting like that and hide the back. Embroiderers always say the back should be as neat as the front but I think that's malarkey!! It is a beautiful and thoughtful gift: and it is green!!

[Susan]

Adorable! What a lucky baby!

[MrsSDC]

Thank you so much Debby. We all absolutely love it.