One More Knitting Project

This should be my last knitting-for-someone-else project for a while, since it isn't done, and even a baby blanket takes a little time. (I did turn down a friend who wondered if I would make a hat for his dog--he's not local, so I couldn't do the measuring and fit-checking I would need to do, when embarking* on a project like that for the first time, and with the other things I have going on, it would be warm weather before I got to it anyway.) So away I go on the blanket.
*Ooh, unintentional!

When I was getting my hair cut before Christmas, my hairdresser, who I've known since I was a kid, though she's only been cutting my hair for 10 years (my god, it's been 10 years since Karl died? how is that possible?), told me that she was about to become a grandmother for the first time, and she really wants to give them something handmade, and she was wondering if I might be willing to knit the baby a blanket.

I have to say, she asked in just the right way. She said it didn't have to be done before the baby was born, no pressure, that I could pick the pattern and the yarn, that she could pay me for it or we could barter for haircuts, all that good stuff. The only suggestion she had* was related to a pillow that was made for her son by his grandmother when he was born, that she's going to give them when the baby comes along, and she thought it would be nice if the two kind of went together. She said the pillow has a sort of nautical theme, navy and white with a little red, and it would be nice if the blanket could tie into that somehow, if I could make it work.
*And a little guidance is a good thing, really.

I said I thought I could come up with something, and in pretty short order I found a blanket pattern that I liked, hitting the sweet spot between so-simple-it's-boring and so-challenging-I-would-pull-out-my-hair. It's the Bounce pattern, by Tin Can Knits, and it's quite cute, as well as versatile in numbers of colors that one can use. I went yarn shopping on New Year's Eve, and found a good machine-wash choice (called Adore) that they had in navy and white (well, I actually chose the cream), and later was able to order a skein of scarlet online, which just came today.

I did do a swatch before I started, to see which size needles I wanted to use (though I didn't wash it to check if that changed anything, so I can only give myself partial credit).

This is done for one repeat each, on size 5, 6, and 7 US needles (hard to tell differences, I know, but in person it was easier). I started with 5, thought that was not quite what I wanted, liked the result from the 6 much better, and did the 7 just to be sure I wouldn't like that more. But 6 was the winner, so I cast on for real.

Before long, it was waving away in two colors.

The blue sections are the ones that push the white into waves, which is an interesting effect to watch happening. See how straight the white at the top is?

That's because it's the blue above it that will affect it.

And soon, the red!