Oh my

To say that my computer has had internet problems of late is to suggest that the Pope has inclinations towards Christianity if he were into organised religion.

Hey ho.

The good news is that the knitting karma works - still no baby on the scene and although the baby isn't due until next Monday we are all expecting him/her iminently.

When I left you last the blanket had top and bottom edging and on Saturday I carefully calculated how many stitches I would need to pick up per block to get to the total 227, carefully picked up all of those stitches and carefully knit on the triangular border which whilst fun is time consuming. I finished the border late Saturday night and spread it out for a look.

Words cannot express my feeling when I realised that no amount of blocking was going to rescue the frilliness of the border. I had wondered why a square blanket had 187 st across the top and bottom and 227 across the sides and when I pinched and pulled the blanket and worked out there were about 5 triangles too many or 40sts I realised the answer: it shouldn't.

I'm sure Debbie Bliss has very good reasons for suggesting 227sts but it doesn't work for me (perhaps her row gauge is looser than mine or something). Anyway with H holding the blanket to stop me stamping on it, I carefully frogged the entire day's work. Grrr. There is no photographic evidence because I was in too much of a pet only compounded by the fact that the internet problems gave me a huge headache checking the Debbie Bliss site and google generally to see whether it was just me. Eternal thankyous to GrumpyGirl for having a site that would load and having had the same problem.

Sunday I knit one border on 187 sts which was much more successful and on Monday at around 2pm it looked like this:

I then bravely introduced it to the washing machine and gave it a little block on the spare room floor comme ca:

Then I did something else for a little bit and popped back to see if it was dry - it wasn't. It still wasn't dry the next time or the time after than or even by the time we went to sleep on Monday. It was only on Tuesday morning that I got to take the glory shots before hurridly wrapping it up to take it to the baby's father.

I have absolutely no idea whether the bump or its parents like it as it didn't get unwrapped at work and I've heard no comment since. Usually I don't really mind whether or not people like their knitted pressies although obviously I'd rather they liked them but with this blanket I've put so much time and effort into it recently that I want the baby to like it. I'm also not sure whether they'll even know I made it rather than bought it as I don't tend to wear knitwear to work. Only time will tell.

However, aside from the side border issue and the fact that there is a mistake in the pattern book for the letter S which explains why I couldn't work out what was wrong with my S, just that it was, I still love the pattern and the yarn and will have no problem casting on another on for the July baby. The yarn machine washed fantastically at 30 and was still soft and squishy so it's definitely a favourite.

In the meantime it's nice to be knitting without a deadline and I will try to finish my tired roses scarf and the long-suffering Aimee soon as well as all the things calling to me from the stash and something lovely for my sockpalooza pal!