Max's Blanket

Max now has his blanket, so I can write about it here. Since my daughter tells me that his mother sometimes reads my blog, I didn't want her to see it here before she saw it for real.

A couple of months ago, Carmen asked me to make something for her to give to a co-worker who was pregnant. The baby was a boy. He would be born in December, He would be named Max. His room would be decorated in browns. I thought about it for a while, and then came up with this.

 Yes, this is two sides of the same blanket. The yarn is cotton with a bit of silk, and can be machine washed and dried. The top, middle and bottom stripes are a stitch pattern that I like for scarves, shawls, etc., because it looks nice on both sides. In fact in my Mon Tricot Knitting Dictionary from 35 years ago, it is listed on one page as 'bicolor half-linen stitch' and on the next page as 'the footstools' with a note that it is the reverse of the bicolor half-linen stitch.

The other two stripes are done in Shadow Knitting, which creates a now-you-see-it-now-you-don't 'pattern'. In this case, the pattern is HELLO WORLD! on one stripe and MY NAME IS MAX on the other. If you look at the blanket straight-on, you don't see the words. You have to look at an angle to see them.

I hope that Max enjoys his blanket. My wish for him, and for all children (after love, food, shelter and clothing, of course), is that he retain the feeling of awe and wonder at the world around him that I hope to convey in that HELLO WORLD!