This Is Why I Don't Make Blankets Anymore

My friend in California was having a baby girl so I decided to knit a blanket. (This was before I had discovered the Marshmellow Dress) I bought a few skeins of Bernat Baby Coordinates Sweet Stripes - its yarn that is colored so that when you knit your blanket, it automatically has stripes! SO COOL - right? 

The pattern I followed had you start from a corner and slowly increase the width until you get to the middle, then you decrease the width - so you're knitting in a diamond shape. The great thing about this blanket is its all knit stitch which I think is easier than having to switch between knit and purl. So I begin - and the blanket is looking pretty cool!

I get to the middle and start decreasing the stitches. I'm diligently working on it for days - knitting, and knitting, and knitting. After a while I start to notice that I've knitted an awful lot and it doesn't seem like my blanket is getting any smaller. I check the pattern again. It looks like I'm doing it right, decreasing every row, just like the pattern says. I'm half way through a row when it hits me like a ton of bricks. Yes - I've been decreasing every row, but I was still doing the increase stitch as well! So basically I was adding back the stitches I was decreasing - keeping it the same width. TRAVESTY. If you're a knitter you've probably had a moment like this. Your stomach sinks to the floor as you try to decide: "do I try to fix it from here on out or do I need to unravel to the original mistake?" I stared at the blanked for a long time before I decided the only option was to unravel. Unraveling is the WORST. And I had to unravel an ENTIRE SKEIN! For those of you unfamiliar with knitting, that is A LOT of yarn.

So I fixed my mistake and finished the blanket (which went a lot quicker once I was knitting it correctly). However it didn't turn out quite as square as I would have liked.

 

It looks more like a sting ray. But luckily babies don't really care how square their blankets are. It was still soft and warm - just how a blanket should be. After I made this I decided that sweaters were a lot less time consuming and you figure out when you've made a mistake much faster. It was a good learning experience, but I haven't made a blanket since.