If you sift way, way back through my blog to the pre-kid days, I posted about a blanket I was making step-daughter, called the Babette blanket. It is a beautiful pattern that I highly recommend, although I was lazy with switching yarn on my granny squares so I've had to do some remedial work on it and it isn't a blanket that can handle the wear and tear of everyday use because of the way I switched colors without tightly anchoring the yarn. Lesson learned the (very) hard way after squares started to unravel.
In that post, I posted that I was probably going to make another, since I had to buy 17 skeins of yarn to complete the blanket. I didn't make another, because it frankly was a really, really time-consuming blanket. However, I did have a large amount of leftover yarn that I was able to use to make crocheted blankets for SB and BW. Neither of which is finished, and they are almost 2. It's a good thing that I grossly overexaggerate the size that a baby blanket needs to be, because they will be able to use these blankets into their teens if they wish. I have mostly finishing left on one blanket, and probably several more rows of crochet on the other. one is a bubble pattern, that has the colors from step-daughter's blanket plus a few more, and the other is a wave pattern that uses 12 different colors. I love them both and need to finish them so SB and BW can love them, too.
Now, I'm stuck a few months from nugget's arrival, and I haven't a start on a blanket. Haven't even thought about a blanket, and don't really know what to do. I think I may wait a few years, and start then.
Then there are the photos. I wrote letters to SB and BW periodically through the first year, and I had grand plans to do photo memory books for them and incorporate the letters and other milestones. I am 4 months into BW's book, haven't started SB's book, and SB and BW are quickly approaching 2. We still don't have any, ANY framed pictures of SB and BW in our house, primarily because by the time I get around to printing pictures, it is months after the pictures were taken, and they feel out of date. I don't know how other people do this. Do they just survive on less sleep than me? Should I be putting this stuff as a higher priority? Do I just give up and try again in a few years?
I'm also feeling third-child guilt already because, in addition to not having any sort of baby blanket project in the works for nugget, I have taken like, 2 bump photos this pregnancy. No weekly photos, no love for nugget-still-in-the-womb. Don't get me wrong, I feel very bonded to her, I am excited for her arrival (although also terrified) but I have horrible pregnancy acne, and it's just work to remember to take the photos before I am comfortably ensconced in lounge pants and a huge t-shirt.
Showing posts with label crochet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crochet. Show all posts
Monday, March 2, 2015
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
The Babette blanket
I've been crocheting for about two years now. I originally learned at my tiny Lutheran grade school - all the students, including the boys, were taught to crochet. At the time, I was impatient and apparently a bit anxious - I could not master the relaxed tension in the yarn and therefore anything i made would grow smaller and smaller as my stitches got more and more cramped. And when a scarf did not appear after a few hours of work, I was bored. So I gave up that hobby fairly quickly.
I decided to start crocheting again after attending a continuing education class and observing a few other women knitting during the class. My brother and his wife were expecting a baby, and I realized that a beautiful handmade blanket would be a nice keepsake for my niece. My first blanket was a disaster because I forgot the composition of some of the basic stitches. It had some nifty stretchy qualities, though. My second attempt at a blanket for my niece was a basic granny square since I was running out of time before baby's arrival. Since then, I have made seven other baby blankets and two oversized throws. Here's what I've learned:
1. Crocheting satisfies my inability to just sit and watch TV. I must have something else to do. (sidenote - it isn't uncommon for me to read and also watch TV, and know exactly what is going on with both.)
2. Making blankets isn't cheap. Yarn can be expensive. I try to get reasonably priced yarn that is still decent quality. The average skein (or bundle for those not versed in geeky yarn technology) is $3-4 dollars. Baby blankets can average 6 skeins - so that's about $24 dollars just in materials. Yes, you can get a nice soft fleece blanket at Target much cheaper.
3. People are very impressed that I can actually make a blanket. It's almost like a stupid human trick. When the mom-to-be unwraps the blanket and finds out it has been made, not purchased, and by someone under the age of 80 no less, they are amazed and awed. I am still somewhat surprised by this, as crocheting takes some skill, but it's fairly easy to at least become decent at it.
4. I like to test the limits of my ability. My stepdaughter's blanket(s) are a testament to this. Since observing me crocheting baby blankets, she asked me to make her one. I said I would, and she could choose the yarn, and the pattern (oops - mistake). First, she chose a strip blanket (not one where you tuck a dollar in between the rows, but rather one where you crochet various strips, then stitch them together). I. Hate. Strip. Blankets. I made one, and I have vowed to never make another, because I am not consistent enough to make joining the strips all easy-peasy. So I vetoed the strip blanket. Then, after I talked her out of the (admittedly patriotic) red, white, and blue yarn (she's 10, and would have abhorred the thing in about a year). She chose yarns in all shades of blue, but two different weights. I tried valiantly to make that work - changed my yarn tension, changed hooks depending on weight - the edge of the blanket still wove in and out like I had been crocheting drunk and with my feet. So after about 20 rows or so, I admitted defeat. My admission of defeat only occurred after my discovery of the Babette blanket.
I stumbled on a picture of the babette blanket online one day, and loved it. Beautiful bright colors, irregular squares, sort of a crocheted crazy quilt - and fit my stepdaughter's personality perfectly (the original blue blanket was supposed to be a bunch of irregularly sized stripes in differing shades of blue). The babette blanket uses 17 different colors of yarn, and involves over a hundred different sized granny squares. (which brings back in my expensive comment before - stepdaughter's blanket is probably going to cost about $50 in materials - but she's worth it). So, I am knee-deep into the making of this blanket and loving it. I hope to make another when this one is done (which I will probably be able to do with the leftovers from the 17 skeins of yarn I had to purchase). My husband thinks I'm nuts, but also loves that I do such a homey, family-oriented hobby. I hope to take some pictures to post of the progress soon.
I decided to start crocheting again after attending a continuing education class and observing a few other women knitting during the class. My brother and his wife were expecting a baby, and I realized that a beautiful handmade blanket would be a nice keepsake for my niece. My first blanket was a disaster because I forgot the composition of some of the basic stitches. It had some nifty stretchy qualities, though. My second attempt at a blanket for my niece was a basic granny square since I was running out of time before baby's arrival. Since then, I have made seven other baby blankets and two oversized throws. Here's what I've learned:
1. Crocheting satisfies my inability to just sit and watch TV. I must have something else to do. (sidenote - it isn't uncommon for me to read and also watch TV, and know exactly what is going on with both.)
2. Making blankets isn't cheap. Yarn can be expensive. I try to get reasonably priced yarn that is still decent quality. The average skein (or bundle for those not versed in geeky yarn technology) is $3-4 dollars. Baby blankets can average 6 skeins - so that's about $24 dollars just in materials. Yes, you can get a nice soft fleece blanket at Target much cheaper.
3. People are very impressed that I can actually make a blanket. It's almost like a stupid human trick. When the mom-to-be unwraps the blanket and finds out it has been made, not purchased, and by someone under the age of 80 no less, they are amazed and awed. I am still somewhat surprised by this, as crocheting takes some skill, but it's fairly easy to at least become decent at it.
4. I like to test the limits of my ability. My stepdaughter's blanket(s) are a testament to this. Since observing me crocheting baby blankets, she asked me to make her one. I said I would, and she could choose the yarn, and the pattern (oops - mistake). First, she chose a strip blanket (not one where you tuck a dollar in between the rows, but rather one where you crochet various strips, then stitch them together). I. Hate. Strip. Blankets. I made one, and I have vowed to never make another, because I am not consistent enough to make joining the strips all easy-peasy. So I vetoed the strip blanket. Then, after I talked her out of the (admittedly patriotic) red, white, and blue yarn (she's 10, and would have abhorred the thing in about a year). She chose yarns in all shades of blue, but two different weights. I tried valiantly to make that work - changed my yarn tension, changed hooks depending on weight - the edge of the blanket still wove in and out like I had been crocheting drunk and with my feet. So after about 20 rows or so, I admitted defeat. My admission of defeat only occurred after my discovery of the Babette blanket.
I stumbled on a picture of the babette blanket online one day, and loved it. Beautiful bright colors, irregular squares, sort of a crocheted crazy quilt - and fit my stepdaughter's personality perfectly (the original blue blanket was supposed to be a bunch of irregularly sized stripes in differing shades of blue). The babette blanket uses 17 different colors of yarn, and involves over a hundred different sized granny squares. (which brings back in my expensive comment before - stepdaughter's blanket is probably going to cost about $50 in materials - but she's worth it). So, I am knee-deep into the making of this blanket and loving it. I hope to make another when this one is done (which I will probably be able to do with the leftovers from the 17 skeins of yarn I had to purchase). My husband thinks I'm nuts, but also loves that I do such a homey, family-oriented hobby. I hope to take some pictures to post of the progress soon.
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