The Pattern from Hell

 I started knitting a baby blanket for someone I know.  No, it’s not a family member.  I am using a kit that included the yarn to make a baby blanket and the pattern. The pattern sold well a few years back but I never did see any of the finished blankets.  Now I know why.  I also now know why so many people gave me their new kits   

First off the finished baby blanket size is 27 by 40 inches.  That is much to small for a baby blanket.  It’s more like the size of a shawl.  Second each stripe is supposed to be 10 inches wide and there are 4 of them.  I might not be the best a math, but by the patterns calculation the blanket would be 40 by 40 inches.   A nice size baby blanket.  For 40 grams of yarn I got 2.5 inches, so for a 100 gram ball that would give me 6.25 inches not 10 inches as stated by the pattern, 3.75 inches too short. Assuming it really was 100 grams when I started. By industry standards they are allowed + or - 5% for each skein of yarn for weight and yardage. 

Since that was only the beginning of the problems with this pattern.  I would have to rewrite the whole thing to send to the company for an errata.  One or two things ok, but the whole dammed pattern no way. So I came up with a work around.  

So I went stash diving to see if I had yarn that matched. Even if it was not the same dye lot I could make it work.  That’s for a lesson or another log post.  I had no luck there.  So I went to start looking at kits that were waiting to be knit.  I found the same kit in the same color.  In the very first basket.  Yeah, there are 5 baskets of kits waiting to be knit.  I  found it in the first basket. I now have a very workable solution.  I will have another pattern to write up shortly.  I usually don’t like writing and knitting 2 patterns at a time , but I will use separate notebooks and different yarn bowls, yarn weights and colors.  So that should help.  

Wish me luck.