Baby Blanket for Meghan and Ben

This past weekend M went to his first baby shower! He was not sanguine going in. He had heard horror stories of games involving diapers and smushed up candy bars, but I assured him that that would not happen at a co-ed shower, especially one for Meghan and Ben. And I was right. He got to chat with a lot of fun people, eat a kielbasa sausage sandwich (we both skipped the cupcakes with Peeps on top), and he helped direct me in painting a honey bee on a yellow onesie (he suggested the flight trail dots and did two little yellow eyes himself).

Meghan got her PhD in the lab we work in, and in the autumn will be starting a science writing program. Ben is finishing up his PhD thesis. She’ll be leaving lab when the baby comes, and I will miss our political and scientific conversations. I took this candid picture of the two of them, and I like it for several reasons: one, her sister Leah in the background (wearing the shades) is grinning at the camera, even though Meghan and Ben are oblivious to it; two, Meghan looks like she is concentrating on movement by the baby with her hand raised over her abdomen; and three, you can see that Ben wore pink shorts and a blue shirt showing that girl or boy he’s happy to be becoming a dad.

I had never knit a baby blanket before, but I figured it couldn’t be too terribly hard if I made it a rectangle. Meghan really likes bright colors, and with the sex of the baby not known, I decided bright colors and lots of them was the way to go.

I used Anne Hanson’s Obstacles Wrap pattern, with 6 repeats going across and 13.5 repeats long. I think it was a good stitch pattern for the busy colors and it blocked well in this Mission Falls 1824 Cotton Swirl yarn. More details on my Ravelry page.


I think Meghan and Ben liked it. Hopefully the baby will too!