Watermelon Baby Blanket

Last week I decided to cast on a pattern I've wanted to try for years now: the Pinwheel Baby Blanket. I've been trying desperately to knit up some of the yarn in my ridiculous stash, so this seemed like a perfect match! I'm thrilled with the way it turned out.

Here's a quick overview of the details: I used Caron Simply Soft yarn and US size 8 needles. I started off without the idea to make the blanket resemble a big slice of watermelon, but the idea hit my pretty quickly after I casted on (the pink color is called Watermelon). I knew that I had just the right shades of green for the rind. I just love stash-busting! The finished blanket has 55 stitches in each section (for a total of 550 stitches), and I used the dark green to crochet one round of single crochet and three rounds of half double crochet for the rind. I needed the weight of the crochet to keep the stockinette from rolling. I started the blanket on double point needles and progressed to a 16" circular, then to a 29" circular, and finally to a 32" circular. I didn't want to buy a longer circular, so I took it as a cosmic sign to stop increasing when I thought there was no way I could jam any more stitches on the needle. The whole project took me about a week, and the finished blanket is about 40-42 inches in diameter. It's bigger than most baby blankets, but I figure that a little too big is better than a little too small.

Here are some tips about starting the Pinwheel Baby Blanket - it can be pretty tricky. There is also a link on that page to an Excel spreadsheet that can be used to predict your diameter as you go. You just have to put in your gauge in stitches per inch and how many stitches you have per section. I thought it was really handy while I was knitting. It's hard to tell what you've got while it's still on the needles.

This was such a fun project, and I plan to knit it again in the future. I'd love to experiment with different colors and striping, maybe even some intarsia.