Baby blankets seem like such a good idea

I am one of those people who doesn't like to make the same pattern twice, unless there is some reason to do so.  So even though I like all the baby things I have made before, when Husband told me one of his coworkers was having a baby, there wasn't really a go-to pattern that I immediately pulled out.  We debated for a bit about what to give and ultimately decided on a baby blanket because it would be in use longer than any article of clothing.

We also debated patterns and then colors for a bit and ended up with the Honeycomb Stroller Blanket from Ravelry.  The pattern looked easy enough but still interesting and it allowed for multiple colors, something I liked.  Based on the projects listed using the pattern, I decided on four colors of the Knit Picks Swish DK: Lotus, Carnation, Peapod, and Marble Heather.  This gave me two shades of pink (coworker is having a girl) and a good bright green as well as a grey to tone it all down.  I picked Bark (dark brown) to do the honeycomb parts and the border, which I think makes it look pretty modern.

The pattern and the yarn work alright together.  The yarn is thicker than the pattern called for (pattern was for sport, supposedly) and I am knitting it on 8s, which is smaller than the pattern called for (10s), and I still find the knitting to be plenty loose.  I pull my yarn really tight, so 8s for me are probably the same gauge as 7s for other knitters. It looks nice so far.

Here's my beef with this project, though: it's taking a really long time.  I work full-time, so I only knit in the evenings really. Even on that time frame,  I can usually knock out a smaller project (a pair of socks, mittens, booties, etc) in about a week or so.  I have been knitting on this baby blanket for 3 weeks now and it still isn't done.  Not even just the border isn't done, the blanket part itself isn't done.  I am overall used to knitting being instant-gratification, so doing a project that takes this long isn't sitting very well with me.  Right now I am about half done with the sixth color repeat (people knitting with this yarn in this pattern tell me I can expect seven color repeats) and I frankly can't wait for this project to be done.  It isn't even that my next project will be that exciting; I just want to finish this one.

At least the baby the blanket goes to isn't due until June.  If the blanket is going to take a month to make, at least I started it early enough that the month isn't pushing it.