Summary: This blanket measures 34” square and weighs 12.2 ounces, which would be three balls of the yarn I used at current 5-ounce put-up size. It was 4 pattern repeats wide and 4 repeats high, plus the garter stitch borders. It took me a couple of years to get around to finishing it, and because of that I wound up using balls of yarn of three different dyelots, and the color changes are very visible. The actual color is a soft sunny yellow, very pretty, which doesn’t show well in these pictures (sorry!).

Oh, another thing I did was, I got bored with the simple diamond pattern shown in the upper detail photo, so did a few of the repeats substituting a centered double decrease to make them little leaves instead.

Back story: Every time I look through the Burda Special E 294 I stop and admire this pretty stitch pattern, so I finally decided I’d better knit it. This one was too much work to donate to charity; I’m saving it for family!

I cast on four 34-stitch repeats plus 9-stitch garter border; looks like it will be about 36” wide and we’ll see how far one skein of yarn will go. One pattern repeat is 9” wide and 9” high. This is larger than the gauge called for, which results in a square of about 7”.

This project has been slumbering for quite awhile (and monopolizing one of my size 6 Addi Lace needles) but I’ve picked it up again at the beginning of 2014 so I’ve called that my starting date.

Jan 25: finished second full repeat of chart. Blankie weighs 175g, remaining yarn in first skein (hope I’ve got another one!) is 80 g. Looks like it’s 36” wide and 18” long at this point, so half done. No, wait a minute, that can’t be right because the label says the full skein is 176g, so I must have started with a partial skein (and yes, there is a join but I assumed it must have been a knot, guess it wasn’t!)

Feb 8: took this to the Knit@Nite group meeting and while showing it spread out on the table I discovered that there was a dyelot mismatch at the point where that earlier join was made. Phooey and whew. Whew because it turned out that I DON’T have another skein of this yarn and have ordered another one. Now I don’t have to worry about a mismatch because there already is one. Everybody said “baby won’t notice.” Thanks, guys.

Feb 14: the new ball of yarn came and this time I have alternated the colors for six rows or so to see if I can at least avoid a visible change of dye lot. Finished third repeat of the lace pattern. One more for a square blanket which seems good to me!

Feb 24: finished! Disappointed at how much the dyelot changes show; don’t let anybody tell you you can soften it by alternating balls of yarn for a few rows. Nope. However, it will keep a baby wrapped and warm so that’s good!