Welcome Home Blanket

welcomehome1

This is Kirsten’s Hipsky’s “Welcome Home Blanket” knit in Valley Yarns Valley Superwash Bulky, the WEBS “house” brand. Great pattern. Great yarn. WEBS calls it “delightfully soft and irresistibly squishy.” And it is.

My blanket is a modification. It uses 5 colors rather than the 7 that the pattern calls for. The missing colors are tan and white. They’re supposed to be added onto the yellow end of the blanket. I wish I could say that modification was my plan right from the start. But I have to ‘fess up on that. Hipsky’s pattern is incredibly simple: three choices of sizes and a 4-row repeat to create the feather-and-fan effect. I realized I’d misread the easy peasy direction for my size to knit “six inches or until almost out of yarn” after I was half-way through the second stripe. Um, I knitted until I was almost out of yarn. So my stripes are about 9.5 inches wide instead of 6 inches wide. I’d have had a powerfully skinny long blanket if I’d added in the remaining two colors (four skeins).

But I’m actually quite pleased with the modification. The white would have looked great. But I wasn’t positive about that tan.

welcomehome4With my modification, the blanket is 35″ by 47″ (instead of 36″ by 42″).

The 10 skeins were remarkably close on yardage. I was able to make 11 pattern repeats, at 9.5 inches each, casting on for the medium size on 10.5 needles (US). I had one ball left with 14 grams, three with 16 grams, and one with 20 grams.

welcomehome5

All that remains is to gift my creation to a sweet little one who is still too young to sleep with a blanket. I think a spring-colored blanket gifted in December would be perfect. Evelyn can use it in her carseat or both she and her mom or dad can cuddle up under it while Evelyn is being fed her bottle.