(photo from Raverly pattern page Contant Baby Blanket by Tina Laiho)

I have a friend whose husband is a symphony conductor. With all of the musicians playing such an important role in her life, Jody feels like they are part of her extended family. A family in which it seems someone is always having a baby.

Jody is always on the lookout for baby gifts that she can knit up quickly. When another friend, here in Mexico had her baby, I was in an interesting position. I have a relatively small stash down here and it is all intended for particular projects. What could I knit quickly and from what little extra yarn I had sitting around? The Constant Baby Blanket.

Remember last year when I was on the washcloth bender? When I organized my stash early this fall, I put all of the leftover yarn in a small bin. I dumped out the yarns and, after taking out the obviously “girl” colors, I was left with a relatively good selection of color for the little hombre.

The next step was a bit tricky. I used the search engine in Ravelry to narrow down my baby blanket options by worsted yarn. That left a lot of choices. I was worried about running out of yarn so the Constant Baby Blanket by Tina Laiho was perfect. Knit from the center out, I could keep going until I ran out of yarn. The trick was to guess how much yarn I would need to bind off.

I was worried that I would not be able to bind off loose enough with the non-stretchy cotton yarn. I worked one round with a knit one, yarn-over to essentially double the number of stitches around the edge. I knit a round so the yarnovers became eyelet lace – well sort of eyelet. Finally, I loosely bound off all the stitches.

Ok, it turned out to be more of a burping cloth but the sentiment was there. And, washing with towels the first time probably wasn’t my best decision. Yes, I did pick off the little lint bits before I wrapped it up.

While I was searching around for my baby knitting project, I stumbled across “Woobie” designs by IDP Designer Kris Carlson.

(photo from Ravelry pattern page of Woobie Froggy by Kris Carlson)

Seriously! Who can resist these woobies! I sent the link on to Jody and she has been having a great time knitting up a menagerie of comfort.

(photo from Ravelry pattern page of Woobie Puppy by Kris Carlson)

I might make this puppy just to sit on my desk. Too cute!!