Done! Just needs blocking.

I love this border, although it takes forever! I think it really “makes” the blanket. I’m tempted to knit another blanket, with one of the cute pattern faces (probably the bowler hat and mustache) just so I have a blanket ready for the next baby.

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THE BORDER: The gauge I got was 18 stitches and 24 rows to 4 inches. That means that if I join every WS row of the border to the top and bottom of the blanket, that I am joining 36 rows for every 18-stitch 4 inch section of the top and bottom, whereas the gauge should have me joining 24 rows for every 18 stitches of the body. I started doing this, and it was too wavy - the border needed to be stretched out more. I thought of using a smaller needle, but the sides wouldn’t require it, and I thought it would look odd to use a 4 mm for the top and bottom and a 4.5 mm for the sides, or to stretch the sides more than the top and bottom.

My solution: For every 18 row pattern repeat, instead of 9 stitches, I attach to 12, so that gives me the correct ratio of rows to stitches (18 body stitches and 24 border rows). On rows 6, 12 and 18 (RS rows), I simple attach another body stitch (k2tog TBL). that means I have 3 rows attached to the body in a row - WS, RS, WS, then back to attaching only on the WS until the next RS attachment. WORKS GREAT!! If I didn’t have the live stitches, I would simply skip every 4th body stitch, but with the live stitches this RS attachment every 6th row works the best.

The sides have to stretch more than the top and bottom, as the row gauge with garter is smaller than the row gauge with stockinette. I think this can be taken care of by blocking. Otherwise, for the next blanket I make, I will do a WS row without joining, every 6th or 8th row - I’ll have to do a gauge swatch and compare.

My friend asked me to make a simple baby blanket in white with a bee in the corner, as the prospective recipient will be named Beatrice (Bea).

Using the Mr. Blanket pattern, with the bee from here - picked the smaller bee at 31 stitches x 25 rows vs. my original pick which was the bigger bee at 48 stitches wide and 60 rows high. Love Tina’s charts, but they are best with fingering weight yarn.

• started with a provisional cast-on of 100 stitches, as I want the blanket to be more rectangular than square.
• as I look at the border, I realize the cable repeat is 18 rows long, which is 7 repeats for the 126 stitches you are supposed to cast on. As I cast on 100 stitches instead, that gives me 5 cable repeats plus 10 extra stitches.
• border ended up about 3 inches wide.

Rejected this bee - too large and more sinister-looking for the baby blanket, but it is a great bee: here - 43 stitches wide and 32 rows high

Gauge: 18 st x 24 rows = 4 inches.

I gave the pattern a 4 for the border issues, which I have pretty-much solved now. The designer was very prompt and helpful when I had a couple of questions.