baby blanket

I'm trying knit a baby blanket. I thought it would be simple; chose a pattern, buy the yarn, knit. It's more like; chose a pattern, hunt the yarn, decide that yarn is too expensive ($70.+ for a tiny baby blanket is too rich for me.) Look for a different pattern, find a book that costs $20 that only has 1 pattern that will ever get used, find yarn you think will work. Go to the library find another pattern. Stitch 2 swatches on 2 different sizes needles. Choose one, knit another bigger swatch. Since the yarn is not what the pattern calls for the big question is, 'Will I have enough yarn?' I'm not sure this is the right way to do it but I hope it works. I measured the chosen larger swatch and weighed it; 16 grams, 39 square inches. The finished blanket is 38 x 38 which ends up being 1,444 square inches. Which will need 592 grams of yarn; I have 400. So I have to go back to the yarn store tomorrow and hope that they have 2 more skeins of yarn in the right dye lot. This has taken 2 WEEKS! I thought it was a simple matter, figured out in minutes instead of weeks. I found this book Knitting for Baby by Melanie Falick and Kristin Nicholas, (check out that cute stripped sweater) at the library, it has 7 projects I want to do AND I DON'T KNIT! I'm a QUILTER. I just decided to knit 1 pair of mittens for my grandson in Idaho... I found out it works really well for that time in the morning and afternoon when I have to be there, you know right in the middle of the kids to direct traffic, kind of, and keep them doing what they need to be doing and knitting beats reading magazines. The blanket is happening because we are going on a loooong road trip for Christmas and I think I'll be able to knit a simple repetitive project in the car. Have you ever tried to quilt in a car? It doesn't work very well so the quilting will stay at home.

ps. I just found this blog of Kristin's (author of above book) with a picture of the stripped sweater that I think is so sweet.