Wednesday, August 14, 2013

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:

Sunny Blanket

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

Sunny Blanket

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.

Sunny Baby Blanket Layouts

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!

Sunny Baby Blanket

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

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. 

5 comments:

Susan Sharpe said...

Beautiful, beautiful blanket Roo

Dee said...

Amazing!

Sue said...

Gorgeous blanket!

blueadt said...

Absolutely beautiful!

You've inspired me to pick up my crochet hooks but I'm all fingers & thumbs :(

Kate said...

It's gorgeous! I love the colour arrangement. :-)