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  • Fly Away Little Bird!

    September 18, 2015 2 min read 0 Comments

    I've had a busy few weeks as I've been knitting Tin Can Knit's Fly Away for my friends Elle and Paul who are expecting their first baby at the end of this month.

     

        

     

    Fly Away is a modular blanket; each individual square is knit on the bias in garter stitch. The pattern suggests a DK knitting yarn but I chose to knit in MillaMia Naturally Soft Aran as I wanted a yarn that would be easy to care for, it's a superwash merino plus I love the roundness of MillaMia its wonderful knitted up in garter stitch as it gives even more bounce to the stitches. 

    Deciding on my colours wasn’t as easy as I didn’t know if the baby was a girl or boy so I wanted to choose colours that would be okay for either. Elle isn’t a fan of “baby pink” so that was one to avoid and I wanted to stay away from primary colours. I played around with different colour combinations for a while until I finally decided on Ivory for my main colour with Teal, Magenta, Ochre and Stone for my contrast colours.

     

        

     

    The pattern is really easy to follow; this is the perfect project if you are on the move or wanting to watch Netflix whilst you knit as it takes very little concentration. I actually managed to finish all 16 squares in a week but then slowed down as I’m not a fan of sewing up but I needn’t have worried as Tin Can Knits have an excellent tutorial on their website explaining exactly how to seam each piece together. There’s also a great tutorial showing how to weave in as you knit which is a great time saver. The pattern also offers suggestions on different layouts so you can achieve many different looks.

     

     

    I used 5mm needles which gave me the gauge suggested in the pattern of 19 sts and 40 rows in garter stitch and my finished blanket measured 80cm².  I used ten balls of my main colour, with one ball each of Teal and Magenta, whilst I need two balls each of Ochre and Stone as I chose to edge my blanket in these colours.

     

     

    It was Elle's baby shower last Saturday so I was able to give her my blanket which I know she will cherish. I think this will definitely be my go to pattern for future baby gifts and I’m very tempted to knit one for my daughter when she goes off to university next year!  

    Fly Away is part of a collection of knitting patterns from Max & Bodhi’s Wardrobe, Tin Can Knit’s latest book. It includes six unisex wardrobe staples that any discerning baby would be thrilled to wear. Each pattern is also available to purchase individually as a digital download.

     

    About the Author

    Rachel Owen is the owner of Tangled Yarn. As a mother to two teenagers life is never dull! When she's not knitting can be found wandering the Pennines with her faithful cocker spaniel Bailee. Her favourite colour is blue or is it green? And she could sink a ship with the amount of tea she drinks!