EZ's Garter Stitch Baby Blanket, so easy, even a masochist, oops, I mean, it was easy, once I figured out what to do with the center stitches.

You figure out how big you want your blanket to be. Then multiply the stitches per inch by the length, and halve that and that is the number of stitches you cast on. Pretty cool. You knit the first row, and when you get to the last stitch, turn before you knit it, and knit back. You keep knitting this way, doing short rows. When there are five stitches left, you stop so your corners will be nice. Then you knit one more stitch each time. My problem was when I got to

the center. Was I to keep knitting doing short rows, or quit and knit all the way to the end? I stopped doing short rows at five stitches, just like the other end. No. I ended up with a mountain in the middle of the blanket. So you keep doing short rows all the way to the end in what will be the center. She says it should lay so nice and flat that you don't even have to block. I wouldn't go that far, but once I get it kitchnered together, it should be fairly square.

Here's another problem. I am a fairly intelligent woman. I've read the Greek classics. I have a degree. I went to nursing school. Why can't I kitchner? Am I being punished for giving my daughter's dog away when she was eight? Not only do I mess it up every time I try it, I don't think I understand what I am doing. The gals knitting in the store today; Beth, Cate and Kelly, looked at me like I had two heads. Cate said, 'You're a weaver, just weave it together.' Maybe Myra will do it for me.

I knit it of Plymouth's Knitcol, a lovely and soft superwash wool. I used two and a quarter balls for a 22 inch receiving blanket. I didn't try to make the stripes symmetrical, it just turned out that way. I have enough left over to do a cute little newborn hat I saw in Knitting for Peace.

I think the baby blanket is important when planning on pursuing EZ's garter stitch patterns. The Baby Surprise Jacket has similar elements in part of it, when you are shaping the front. You don't know that is what you are doing the first time, that is for sure! I'm going to so a few more baby blankets in washcloth size so I can really understand that center.

The Garter Stitch Baby Blanket is in Knitting Workshop, the book we are using as a guide for the Zimmerman study we are going to do. Usually, I like patterns that say, ok, pick up your yarn in your right hand, knit five stitches, purl five, it's ok to take a sip of coffee now, etc. You get my point. The Sunrise Circle Jacket was my favorite project to date and I think because it had eight pages of instructions. Reading EZ's patterns are a stretch for me. At the end of the book, she says you will be a master knitter if you do all the projects in it. I am just interested in the garter stitch patterns.

I have the rib warmer on the needles and also started another baby surprise, so I am on my way.