When we had our first baby, a boy, I made a baby blanket for him, but never got around to writing a blog post about it. So this is that post. The pictures are of what the blanket looks like now (after 2.5 years), which is lightly used. The toddler barely used this blanket because we didn't use it for him when he was a baby (see thoughts on the yarn below) and when he got older he loves to be cold so no blanket is a good idea to him.
When the husband and I went to the store to buy the yarn, the husband gravitated towards this super plush changing color yarn (called stripes) full of blues and greens. I, of course, made a teddy bear to go with it.
 |
| Hexagon blanket with teddy bear |
Main Info
Blanket
- Size: 32" x 45"
- Time: 24 hours
- Yarn: Red Heart soft essentials
- 7.25 skeins of Jungle Stripes (This yarn is exclusively at Michael's)
- 2 skeins of Charcoal
- Pattern:
- Hexagon: 3D Solid from Crochet Inspiration by Sasha Kagan
- Joining Stitch: Flat Braid Join
Teddy Bear
Thoughts from the process
Yarn
I would not recommend this yarn for a baby blanket. While it feels wonderfully soft, it frays very easily, which means yarn fibers are easy to pull off and get into the baby's mouth. We ended up using this blanket mainly for padding under a thinner cotton blanket when our son was a baby.
Baby Blanket
I wasn't sure about the striped yarn at first. It's dyed in a way that the yarn slowly changes color. With the hexagon pattern, the slow change is not that obvious, especially when compared to the bear. We originally bought 6 skeins, but after seeing the number of hexagons I could make with that (about 4 per skein) we bought 3 more online (no more at the store) and used 1.25 of them.
 |
| Hexagon blanket, full shot. |
The joining stitch was a new one for me as well. We wanted something thick and chunky to make each hexagon really stand out. This join stitch is a little cumbersome to use because it required me to remove my hook from the loop and reinsert it. But I got the hang of it eventually.
 |
| Flat braid joining stitch in the middle of the blanket |
The blanket trim was a single crochet (sc) at every other stitch with 3 chains (ch) in between. Each corner of the hexagon had 2sc with a 3ch between.
 |
| Flat braid joining stitch at the edge of the blanket with a view of the blanket trimming and corner |
Teddy Bear
It was interesting to see how the bear would turn out. I purposely decided to simply ignore the yarn's color as I chose what part of the bear to make next. The fact I ended up with the same color muzzle as the stripe in the middle of the bear's face and different colored foot pads compared to the rest of the leg was pure accident. It's a very interesting amalgam of colors. I used the charcoal yarn for its eyes and nose.
 |
| Striped teddy bear |
The one thing I don't like about this bear is that the yarn is so thick that I couldn't make my stitches tight enough to keep from seeing through to the stuffing. My son is two years old now and has never gravitated towards any stuffed animal. But perhaps it'll serve as a memento someday for him.
Comments
Post a Comment