When I first got a glimpse at TinCanKnits new pattern collection, Max and Bodhi's Wardrobe, there were 2 patterns that immediately jumped out at me and I knew that I would be knitting them for my own little one(s). Yes, it's true, I got a sneak peak at the whole collection before it was released... there are some perks to running a yarn business! You may have noticed that there has been a real lack of baby knits on this blog. When I was pregnant with Rowan I ate, slept and breathed baby knits for a full 9 months and was not shy about blogging about it on the regular. I have been suffering from some pretty serious guilt this time around since I haven't knit a single thing for the new baby! I had piles and piles of knits all ready for Rowan before he was born, this next baby will wear all of those knits (so don't worry, my child will certainly not go knit-less!) but I really want to have a few things that were made especially for him/her.
Baby blankets are the perfect piece of heirloom knitting. So, when I saw the gorgeous Fly Away Blanket pattern I knew that was the first thing I would cast on for from the latest TCK collection. I really liked the pattern as it's shown in the sample, but what is super cool is that they've included schematics for 8 different layouts resulting in completely different looks, and they are all awesome. This blanket is described perfectly as "A modern hand knit quilt". I LOVE patchwork quilts and despite the fact that sewing a patchwork baby blanket would probably take me one evening, I just cannot shake my knitting roots and somehow find the prospect of knitting a patchwork blanket more doable than sewing one. Time-wise, it makes no sense, but I still love the fact that I'm going to get to scratch that patchwork itch without having to dig out my sewing machine.
Alright, so with the pattern chosen, I sat down at my computer, armed with my "Sewing Quilting and Needlework" Pinterest board and started whittling down my options in terms of layout, colour selection and placement. It took the better part of an afternoon to decide what direction I wanted to go in. Not knowing the gender of the baby doesn't really affect my planning. I don't think that I would knit exclusively in pinks and purples for a daughter anyway. I am a girl and I LOVE blues and greens, if we have a girl, hopefully she will too! After much deliberating I landed on this quilt as my colour palette inspiration:
I am very drawn to those shades, it kind of reminds me of our Lucky Penny colourway all broken down into it's separate elements. It also reminded me of this watercolour I made a few months back, all shades of blue and green with a bit of mossy yellows.
So then I opened up Illustrator and started mocking up my layout and colour placement. I don't want this blanket to look too deliberately thought out, I wanted a more unexpected colour placement. I tend to gravitate towards a very specific spectrum, always going from light to dark, or through a deliberate rainbow scheme, this time I'm trying to mix things up a bit. This is my plan:
In my mock up I've depicted each block of colour with one solid hue, though I intend to use more of a scrappy approach in the actual construction. For example, all of that light grey/beige will be knit in Chris Grey, Sand or other bits of leftover yarns that fit the tone. Just like a patchwork quilt might be made up of all kinds of different fabric scraps that read as similar, that's the look I'm going for.
I've already made a pretty good dent in my squares and am loving seeing it come together. With any luck I'll have it finished before the baby's arrival and you'll get some modelled shots soon! I can't even believe I just wrote that. We are but a few weeks away friends, crazy!
Stay tuned for my blanket progress and for a fun Fly Away Blanket themed giveaway later this week!