The Bay Blanket - Made with Love for My Sister

I decided to keep it simple for my first project on my knitting machine - a blanket.  After all, it's just a rectangle - no shaping involved.  Easy peasy, right?  Of course, because I am who I am, I had to make it much more complicated.  Enter Purl Bee's Hudson's Bay Inspired Crib Blanket.  My grandfather had an original heavy wool HBC blanket and the Purl Bee pattern inspired some nostalgia.  The design is so simple yet meaningful.  My sister is starting a lengthy bout of medical treatments this week and I'm hoping that this cozy lap blanket will provide her some comfort during a potentially unpleasant process.

On knitting needles, making this blanket is a breeze.  It's pure garter stitch.  On the machine, I had to make some changes.

First, my knitting machine cannot do garter stitch.  But, that's o.k. because I actually prefer the look of stockinette stitch.  I love the uniformity of the perfectly aligned columns of little "V"s (I'm such a knitting nerd).  But stockinette stitch poses problems as well - the dreaded curl...

After watching a number of videos on YouTube, I discovered a clever trick posted by Diana Sullivan (a generous guru of machine knitting).  Her lesson on decorative no-roll edges provides an easy yet visually appealing solution to stopping panels of stockinette from curling. In the picture of my blanket (left) you can see how the direction of the border is 45 degrees offset from the stockinette stitch.  I used a three-prong transfer tool every second row to achieve this effect on both edges.  The technique itself is not difficult to master.  However, it was my first time ever using a transfer tool, so perhaps not exactly the best starting point for me.  A note to others: start by learning how to use a single-prong transfer tool before a multi-prong tool.

The second challenge I faced was the curl at each end.  There is a way to do ribbing on the machine by undoing stitches and then using a latch tool to do the reverse stitch.  That proved much too onerous for me.  So, I hand knit a garter border on each end.  I have discovered that I quite enjoy using a provisional cast-on and finishing projects by hand.

The third challenge was learning how to switch colours on the knitting machine.  I learned a difficult lesson while making this blanket.  If you forget to put yarn into the yarn feeder and run the carriage across your work, all the stitches will be released and your project will fall to the ground.  Sadly, this happened to me four times and I was forced to restart this project each time.  I did attempt to reattach the stitches to the machine but it looked sloppy and I could tell where the join was.

When I finished all the knitting, I was quite pleased with the look of the blanket.  The iconic stripes were striking.  However, once the knitting was complete, I spent quite a bit of time completing the finishing touches.  Why does the final 10% of a project always take the longest?  And of course, I decided to line the blanket with micro fleece.  More about that in my next post.

Here is the modified pattern for a knitting machine:

1. Using a provisional cast-on technique of choice (I crocheted a chain and then used a transfer tool to place it on my needle bed), cast-on the number of stitches to get your desired width.  For the Brother KH 260 (a chunky gauge machine), I cast on 110 stitches of worsted-weight yarn.
2. Note: On the even rows, use the three prong tool to create a decorative no-roll edge.  See video for Diana Sullivan's instructions.

• knit 30 rows of cream
• knit 12 rows of blue
• knit 12 rows of cream
• knit 12 rows of yellow
• knit 12 rows of cream
• knit 12 rows of red
• knit 12 rows of cream
• knit 12 rows of green
• knit 48 rows of cream
• knit 12 rows of green
• knit 12 rows of cream
• knit 12 rows of red
• knit 12 rows of cream
• knit 12 rows of yellow
• knit 12 rows of cream
• knit 12 rows of blue
• knit 30 rows of cream
• using waste yarn knit two rows and then release stitches from the knitting machine - do not bind off

Working one end at a time, pull out waste yarn (or crocheted chain) and transfer live loops to a long circular knitting needle.  Knit 8 rows and bind off.   Tuck in all the loose ends and block.