I love making baby blankets. It’s really gratifying to give a handmade blanket to an expectant or new mother when you know she really appreciates the time you put into it.
Recently, I’ve been brainstorming ideas for two new baby blankets. One is for a friend in Charlotte. This one isn’t too hard; I’m just waiting to find out if it’s a boy or a girl. I have a couple patterns picked out to choose from as soon as I know.
The second one is for my closest cousin who is having a girl this summer. I crocheted a Blanket for her first born 8 years ago. He used his blanket so well that it was eventually full of holes. She patched it for a while but soon it was a hopeless mess. The same thing happened to the blanket I made for her daughter 3 years ago. Now, in hindsight it occurs to me that maybe I shouldn’t have used the exact same yarn and basically the same pattern if I wanted the second one to last longer. One of my favorite sayings is, “You do what you do, and you get what you get.” Basically, you can always expect the same results from the same actions.
This time, I’m trying to be a little smarter about it. I still want to crochet the blanket for the sake of continuity and it can’t take too long to make. I have my own new baby and not as much time these days. I think I’ll double strand the yarn and make the gauge a little tighter. I’ll also give my cousin some special washing instructions.
I spent some time looking for a pattern that might fit all these criteria and it really just takes too long sometimes. I decided it would be much more interesting and fun to make up my own pattern. I have the basic idea in my head already so I’ll probably get started tonight.
I’ll keep track as I go and share the pattern after I give the blanket to my cousin. Maybe this one will last longer but if it doesn’t, that’s ok too. At least I know it will be loved and appreciated.
crystal
Ana
Working out Kinks and Fingering Yarn 
Feb 20, 2011 @ 03:34:20
What kind of yarn are you going to use? I was going to make the Teddy Bear blanket from knittingonthenet, but then I decided since I’m a very new knitter and this is my first project to make a bunch of mitered squares in two or three different colors and sew them together. I’m using natura 1 pound.
Feb 20, 2011 @ 09:09:44
I’m using Bernat Softee Baby. I think it might be a dk weight. I’m double stranding for the crochet blanket and I’ll probably do the same for the one I knit. I’m thinking of knitting either the teddy bear blanket or one called Dreamcatcher. I’ll send you the pattern. It’s swuares sewn together but there are about 5 different patterns for the squares. They are simple, though.