Sometimes, being clever can actually slow me down.

In the wonderful world of "winging it", I discover that the package to Liz (who doesn't read this blog), who's now home on bed-rest for the last month of her pregnancy, is being delivered next week (probably Tuesday). This means I really have to get my tail in gear and make the baby blanket I've been yapping about for a few months now! So, this morning, I decide on small receiving blanket in machine-washable yarn, in one of her colors (yellow). And yes, it's fake yarn, so I'll put in a note about not having it in the crib with the little guy due to fire concerns. It's more for pretty-on-the-stroller.

My original plan was to knit a feather-and-fan blanket, since I think they're lovely... but c'mon. Five days? I can't knit ANYTHING in five days. Crochet, on the other hand - I can do a full-sized afghan in eight, so a tiny receiving blanket should be doable. I have yellow-and-white yarn and a hook in my bag this morning, and I hit Ravelry.

The only problem is that I can't actually find access to a feather-and-fan crochet pattern. I manage to find errata for the Wool Bam Boo Scarf from the Fall 2006 issue of Interweave Crochet - for Row 3, which, thankfully, was enough to figure out what rows 1, 2 and 4 must be, and from there, the whole blankie. It's based on a twelve-stitch repeat, so I cast on some multiple of twelve stitches (no, I honestly don't know how many right now, I just kept counting to twelve until it looked "wide enough"). Here it is once I've "chained a bunch, then dc-ed a bunch":


... and here it is at the end of lunch, with one feather-and-fan row done, and coming back for the all-dc row #4.


It took a few tries, but I knew a feather-and-fan looking thing is possible, because a few Saturday mornings ago, I caught Knit & Crochet Today Show 219: Knit & Crochet Afghans. While looking up the episode number so I could post it here , I discover that there's actually A PATTERN already made up, so I feel a bit silly... but I'm going to keep going with my winging-it, since I like the way it's coming out. If I get really stuck, or it looks horrid after a few more rows, I'll use the Official Pattern. I wish I'd thought to look for it first, though....!