Cloud Baby Blanket

I have made many baby blankets since I first started crocheting. So for a special childhood friend I jumped at the opportunity to make her something a little extra special. This also gave me the opportunity to add a bit more of my own touch to the pattern I have been using for so long.

Below is the finished product along with a matching teddy bear. I've found that I've accumulated so much extra baby yarn over the years that to help use it up I make a stuffed animal to go with the blankets now :)

Cloud baby blanket and teddy bear

How I did it

The yarn is Lion Brand Yarn and I buy the Pound of Love, which is giant one pound skein of yarn. This blanket's pattern comes with the yarn. My first alteration to the pattern was to have the trim all around the blanket, rather than just the hood. For my close friend I decided to alter it again and switch yarn while crocheting to create the cloud pattern you can see above.

Plan the Blanket out Before Hand

Various scribbles while I worked on the blanket.

I considered a bunch of different cloud shapes, as well as two ideas for the blanket. I opted for the one with more varied sized clouds. After making the blanket, I'm glad I choice the many different sizes. It gave me the ability to put in a little cloud where ever it felt like there was too much empty space.

Experiment

Cloud experiment with random balls of yarn

Before even attempting to make the actual blanket, I experimented with a bunch of yarn I had lying around. It's a little difficult to see, but I opted for the darker green-blue idea, rather than the pink cloud that I made first in this experiment.

Actually Making the Blanket

After deciding on the pattern, I had to split up the giant skein I had into the necessary balls of yarn. I studied my pattern to find the row with the most color changes and made the corresponding number of yarn balls. I ended up with two balls of white yarn and three yellow (sorry no picture, I forgot to take one).

To increase and decrease a given yarn color make sure to plan it so the yarn colors don't get mixed. So I purposely crocheted the blanket so increasing a particular color meant I just picked up the yarn right where I left it when I last switched. To decrease I had to use a slip stitch to move the yarn over, but made sure to only slip stitch over the same colored yarn.

Back where I left the white yarn last time I switched

Slip stitching white yarn over white yarn to decrease the white yarn

If you find weaving yarn tedious, like I do, I highly recommend weaving yarn ends as you go. The more color changes you have the more random yarn ends you'll need to weave in.

Bunch of yarn ends I haven't weaved in yet
(And that's not all of them, some are on the other side!)

Teddy Bear

The teddy bear pattern is at another blogger's site. It came out smaller than I was expecting, but I find it precious :) I continued the idea of changing yarn so I had a yellow bear with white accents. I used embroidery thread for his eyes and nose.

Little matching teddy bear

I had to guess when to start switching yarn for his tummy and wish it was a little higher. I also still need to work on figuring out where to sew in the various pieces when I make these. This little guys ears are a little crooked. Overall a good effort and the mistakes add to his charm.

Some last pictures