Baby blanket blues

I have made baby blankets before. The cutesy patterned flannel kind that you sew ribbon around the edges. The garishly coloured crochet afghan kind. But when I found myself telling a friend a few months ago, after hearing the news that his girlfriend was pregnant, that I would make them a baby blanket, I had a slight panic attack. This time, a baby-patterned flannel or fleecy number just wouldn't do. I wanted something kick-ass and quintessentially Aunty Shabby (still figuring out exactly that that is), but still with a baby vibe and practical. As we didn't know if it was a boy or girl, something unisex colourwise, but not insipid, like that nasty baby-puke yellow or those vile mint greens (sorry if you like those colours - I am NOT a pastels kinda girl). I thought I would knit a blanket - my sister, greenolive, always seems to have success with these, so I figured it couldn't be too hard.

The silver-ish wool I loved ( yes, of course I bought what they had anyway) and the two colours I ended up using

First things first - the wool. After knitting a jumper (or sweater if you live in the Northern Hemisphere) for my husband on 4mm needles - and this was before we were married, which apparently is a very bad and unlucky thing to do if you are superstitious about these things - I vowed never to use smaller than a 4.5mm size needle on anything bigger than a scarf again! This meant that I couldn't get any of that ridiculous 2 or 4 ply stuff which is basically all baby wool usually is! I also hate the traditional baby wool colours (see comments above). Hmmmm... I did like some of those new bamboo wools though and after a trip to Clegs, discovered a beautiful silverish-pinky-blue variegated shade which looked perfect. Trouble is they only had a few balls left - of course my sister had already beaten me to it, as usual, and had bought up most of the store! I eventually settled on a combination of bright acid orange/pink and a green/yellow 100% bamboo wools - my blanket would be very funky and citrusey!

Two of the initial garter stitch squares

Next the stitch. This is where the blues part of the story comes in. After once gloating that I didn't have much trouble settling on the right stitch for a particular project/wool, I have now run into a snag, so to speak. My initial idea of knitting different coloured squares in a simple garter stitch and then joining them together didn't work. My tension is usually pretty good, resulting in an even, firm stitch, but knitting this rather slippery wool with size 4 (I caved, although they recommended 3.25mm) bamboo needles (they seemed appropriate), this wool produced a rather wonky looking square. The tension was all over the place and the selvages were nasty. Unimpressed. After 3 squares I knew it wasn't going to get any better. A blanket made up of 16 of these suckers would suck. What to do?

Nana-ish crochet square

I turned to crochet, wondering if an intricate olde-worlde square motif would work. After reacquainting myself with a Jo Sharp pattern I had liked (I have half-made a poncho with this), it took me almost an hour to produce one measly square. It looked OK I thought, but maybe a bit too nana-ish. Mr S thought so too. Still no good. Even though a blanket made up of these might look sweet, no doubt one of them would have a nana (or similar elderly female relative or friend) very adept at this kind of baby blanket making and theirs would probably look way better than mine. That simply would not do. My blanket had to look edgy and cool. Modern but still baby-like. The kind of blanket that people would spy in your pram and stop you in the street to ask you where you got it from. Maybe I needed to consult one of those new baby pattern books? Or some kind of expert? Cue greenolive.

Current version

After her advice, I am now trying crochet again, but in one piece, alternating treble stitch stripes of orange/pink then green/yellow. She suggested I miss a chain between stitches on the first row (then do one chain in between each stitch on rows), as it is quicker to knit and uses less wool. Crochet also seems to highlight to lovely sheen and colour of the wool better than knitting. The result though is quite "holey'" and after only 3 rows (I am slow and it is at least a metre wide; I am aiming for 1m x 1m), I'm not sure I am loving it. I am using a size 4 crochet hook and I think my tension might be a bit loose.

Let me know what you think. I will endeavour to post more pics once I have progressed further...

Comments

[greenolive]

I think I agree, try a smaller hook and see if you can crochet a bit tighter. If you go to Clegs, get one of those ergonomic crochet hooks, the ones with the yellow handles. The are much nicer to hold and work with.

[Fioleta]

Good luck with the baby blanket. I thought of making one for my daughter: decided that I don’t want to use zigzag pattern; granny square one – too many ends to hide; tried two different wave patterns, progressed quite far on the second one before deciding that I didn’t like it. So still thinking about it.

And good luck with your craft business as well. Will be interesting to see how it will progress.

[Aunty Shabby]

Thanks! I would love to see some pics of yours, even if it isn't finished. If you are like me though, you don't like to share things unless they are done and you are happy with them! It feels very naked and vulnerable, like forgetting to put on your undies - which I guess if you are Britney Spears is not such a bad thing!

[Fioleta]

Sadly (or maybe for the best) I didn't take any pictures.