What's on my needles...

In my newest series, What's on my needles..., or "hook" as the case may be...this is my 2nd post. In the 1st post I talked about a round lap blanket I'm working on, which had to be put on hold for this one. (Not quite finished in this pic)

Nikki, of militarywifestampinspot.blogspot.com and BondGirlCreations26 etsy shop contacted me about a custom order. The idea for this lap blanket had been in the back of my mind, so when she mentioned that she wanted neutral colors in the brown family, I knew this one would be perfect. She also mentioned that she liked my Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Baby Blanket, she remarked "I love how cozy it looks".

Since I made that pattern up as I went, and didn't write it down (bad me), I had to go back and look at it, write it out, then try to adjust for the size difference. As I am NOT one to EVER use a "guage swatch" (very very important when size is an issue in knitting...so BAD ME), this was more difficult than I imagined.

For the colors for her custom blanket, I knew I wanted it to graduate from the darkest to the lightest. I planned to do this by using two stands of yarn of the same color together for the first stripe, then for the next stripe, 1 strand of that color and 1 strand of what would be the next lighter color. The 3rd stripe would be two stands of that lighter color. (example: 2 strands of "charcoal"--1st stripe

1 strand of "charcoal, 1 strand of "dark chocolate" --2nd stripe

2 strands of "dark chocolate" --3rd stripe), this would have made the graduation less noticeable, more gradual.

I chose an organic cotton yarn for the ease of care AND so that she could use it year round. I was half way finished when I realized it wasn't going to be long enough AND it was way too heavy...ugh. NOT what I had in mind! Sooooo, I spent 2 days, yes 2 whole days, taking it apart...the reason it took so long was that I had to rewrap each ball of yarn as I went (10 BALLS)!!!!!! Having to use more yarn to make it longer was not only going to mess up my color design, but it was going to make it toooooo costly for what Nikki & I had agreed on. And did I mention the "heaviness"? Who wants a lap blanket the weighs you done and is like a ton of bricks to carry?!

Replanning my design, I realized that the only way to use 2 strands of yarn together to get my original look is to use a much lighter weight yarn (and I'm sure I will in the future) as I have Nikki's permission to make more of them to sell, and I'm also going to sell the pattern on etsy (as I wrote the pattern down as I went this time and plan to do so from now on).

I am extremely happy with the end result (which is now laying flat to dry after washing it)...I hope to have it ready for finished pics and listing on etsy for Nikki within the next couple of days. I'll be sure to post a finished pic.