Blankets for premature babies
I was looking for a new knitting project for this year, after spending much of 2016 on the knitted nativity characters , and 2017 knitting toys for my grandchildren and some young friends. Early in January I discovered this page about knitting for premature babies in the UK . The page listed several different sizes of blankets that various hospitals require, as well as some other smaller items. A similar project in Cyprus (where I live) had closed, but I knew we would be visiting my son in the south-east of the UK in April, so I set to work with enthusiasm, using one of the patterns given on the site, and some purple yarn I had bought somewhat randomly from the local thrift store. I intended to make an 18x18 inch blanket (yes, all dimensions are given in inches) but despite making an attempt to check my tension, I realised after about twenty rows that this particular pattern - which was the one called 'waffle stitch' in the knitting info pack - knitted fairly tightly, so m