FO: Baby Blanket & Cardigan

I am horrible at surprises and keeping secrets when I have gifts to give. I think I get that from my Dad. He always wanted you to open the present as soon as he found it because it was always so good. I’m the same way and I was going to wait until this package got delivered on Monday but I already sent sneak peeks to my girlfriend. HA! I figure there are other great things in the package AND you don’t truly appreciate a hand knit until you actually hold it in your hands. Am I right?

I always ask my girlfriends what their color schemes are so that I can plan a blanket or cardigan to match. I’ve found that a lot of times my blankets get incorporated into newborn photoshoots, which is pretty cool! So when I asked Amanda what her color palette was for her baby girl she said grey and white…if you know me you know I prefer to work in wild and colorful palettes. LOL

I kept it simple but added a bit of sparkle 🙂 How cool is this Simply Soft Party yarn?! It turned a simple grey blanket into something with a fun twist to it. The blanket is pretty simple and I just used the checkerboard stitch so that I wouldn’t have to reference a pattern. I also love that it makes it reversible! I put all the details about this project on Ravelry.

And since I simply couldn’t resist, I whipped up a cardigan for their baby girl as well. Her husband is a University of Texas at Austin alum and they’ve recently moved back to Austin and their baby girl will arrive at the start of football season. Of course that means I needed to make a UT inspired cardigan just for football watching with Dad. Their last names starts with a G, so I thought I’d let the world know that’s her team of choice.

A lot of my memories and time spent with my Dad revolved around watching football. I also spent a lot of time in Notre Dame t-shirts when I was with my Dad.

I hope that baby girl and her Dad get to create just as special a bond over football and I’m glad my cardigan might be a facilitator in that process.