The Baby Blanket

Handmade baby blankets are typical gifts for new babies, but I find that every time I finish one, I try to find a better pattern to try the next time. But not anymore. This blanket was the pinnacle of my baby-blanket making career. This project was a perfect example of an absolute disaster turned around and it will be the only one of its kind made by my hands.

Here's what happened... I spent a few days searching my usual websites for the *perfect* blanket for our very good friends' first-born son. I came across this one: http://www.crochetnmore.com/babysabcsafghan.htm and, while no offense is meant toward whoever designed this pattern, I found plenty of mistakes that I couldn't fudge my way through, so I created my own.

Pretty, isn't it? It took me at least 10 hours to map all of this out and make adjustments to the font to make it more uniform. After that, I decided that one color wouldn't possibly be suitable to such an important birth, so I decided to make it two-tone, but not in a simple way. No, that would have made sense. Instead, I made each of the pattern stitches (shown on the chart in black) a contrasting color. The result was more than 80 hours of futzing around with trying to finish this project. I missed the opportunities to send the finished product for the baby shower and Christmas, so I just sent it as soon as it was done. But it is finished now, and it is beautiful, and I am very pleased. It is double-thick, due to the method I used to alternate the colors.

The pattern I used was my own (pictured above), but I used the directions from here: http://www.crochetnmore.com/babysabcsafghan.htm. Feel free to message me if you would like a document-size copy of my diagram emailed to you.

The yarns I used were: http://www.caron.com/color_cards/cc_simplysoft.html in Light Blue (4 skeins) & Country Blue (6 skeins).

Update: I received a picture of my gift being used! What better thanks than that ?!