Sunny Baby Blanket

At Christmas last year my "other" Bridesmaid announced she was expecting baby number one in June 2013. I was over the moon with excitement for her, but with a tiny baby myself I was wondering if I would ever get the time to make her a blanket to match the one I made for Lauren. Kerry is the person who taught me to crochet; she knits too - so it had to be something very special.
As the weeks turned into months I finally had a couple of hours in the evening to myself and a plan began to form (after many hours of browsing baby blankets on Ravelry - inspiration from here, here and here).
I started in the middle of May with four colours of Baby Cashmerino and a vague idea:



I made a lot of circles and edged them in off white.



This is the first time for a while that I have made squares that need to be seamed and it made me particularly undecisive.
I evenutally made the decision to add more colours to balance the dark and light hues so dug into my stash of Baby Cashmerino and I ended up with 8 different colours for the centres of the squares.

After a last minute purchase of a ball of orange yarn I finally had 57 squares crocheted and what I thought would be just enough off white to add a border.

However, deciding which pattern to use was challenging. I spent three evenings swapping and changing squares and taking pictures.



With some help from Twitter and Ravelry I eventually decided on number 6 - Big diagonals.

It took a couple of evenings to join the squares. I was worried I'd end up messing up the pattern, or that my small people would mix up my carefully ordered piles; however it went without a hitch. I used Lucy's granny square joining tutorial - which made a lovely flat, neat seam.

After more deliberation I added the border from the pattern, but only had enough yarn to do one repeat of the front post crochet round.

And here is the ta-daaah moment!



Another success I think - it arrived in Surrey today and I know it will be loved and cherished.


Started: 18th May 2013
Finished: 9th August 2013
Hook Size: 3.5mm
Yarn:  Debbie Bliss Baby Cashermino in:

Off White - ecru (101) - just over 5 1/2 balls. 

Yellow - primrose (001) 

Green - apple (002)
Pink - candy pink (006)
Light blue (baby blue 204)
Teal - Mallard (59)
Dark Pink/purple - Hot Pink (60)
Orange- Apricot (63)
Light gray - silver - (12)
Dark gray - Dark gray (58)
I could get 8 circles from one 50g ball of yarn with a tiny bit left over. 

The blanket weighs 630g and is 7 x 8 squares.