Layette Blanket Almost Finished

Well, I've finally finished the main part of this project. I used 6.75 balls of Karabella Supercashmere Bulky. Of the seven skeins used, 3 had joins in the middle. Considering that this yarn at full price costs $55 per skein (not what was paid, thank goodness), and is only 81 yards long, this is totally unacceptable.

My daughter bought the yarn and asked me to knit this pattern for her, from Linda Morse's Luxury Knitting. I followed the directions for washing the blanket, putting it in a mesh bag and washing it with cool water on the delicate cycle. I even followed the book's advice to put it in the dryer on low for 5 minutes in the bag. I lost courage and took it out at 3 minutes, tho'. What had been a rather grayish yellow cleaned up beautifully. The hand is incredibly soft now and feels luxurious. I'll snip all the joins after I add the blanket stitch border.

Initially I used a #10 circular needle but at the rate I was going would have needed 2 more skeins to complete the project. Using a #9 needle instead I was able to get to almost the dimensions called for. My blanket is 26.5" x 31" .

Now I have to do the blanket stitch border. I don't have the directions from the book and am somewhat concerned about all the joins unless I use a very long tail. My daughter chose the Koigu KPPPM colorway from my stash. Although Kersti, a dk weight is called for, I don't have any. This week I wound the two skeins together. If the ply is too loose, it won't work. This weekend I'll run the doubled skein through the spinning wheel. The color in the photo above isn't really true -- on this monitor it's too blue.