A friend of my mom, from her bunco group, is having a baby boy. She also has a young daughter, and so my mom thought it would be nice to have a set of items made. We did something similar before for a
set of three siblings. She requested a blanket for the new baby boy and a scarf for the daughter.
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| the finished set |
I went through my stash, which has quite a large selection of baby yarns that I have been given, to see what would look nice together. I didn't have enough of one kind of yarn to make a full blanket, but I found a complimentary set of blues. I had nearly a full skein of the lighter one which I decided to use for the main body of the blanket and then use the darker to edge it. I could then use this darker yarn and another to tie into the sisters scarf.
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| leftover stash yarns to use up |
Since I was not sure how much of the light yarn I had, I wanted a pattern that would start in the center and work out so I could see the finished size if I ran out. I figured that meant I would need to make a pretty
basic large granny square blanket. But while looking through my pattern Evernote notebook I decided instead to make the
Starburst Baby Blanket instead by the blog Creative Jewish Mom. No I am not Jewish, and I am not sure how I found the pattern, but it was pretty, simple and elegant looking. Figured I could easily make the center in the light stuff and then do the same sort of border in my darker yarn. Plus it is a center out pattern just like I wanted.
I have no idea what brand this yarn is that I am using. It is very soft, and I am pretty sure is a baby yarn, but it is a very large skein for baby yarn. That means that a F 3.75mm hook would be probably be alright to use, but since the pattern called for a J 6mm hook, I sort of compromised at a H 5.00mm hook. I know this means my blanket will probably be a bit smaller, but it is a
baby blanket.
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| left is the original join, right is the reworked join |
Starting off is pretty standard, but after about 8 rows I realized I did not like how the join area was turning out, so I ripped it out back down to the second row and made each row start with a chain 4 and then slip stitching the end into the third chain making that same ch1 space more defined, like on the other three sides.
I also decided to just stick with the corner pattern we started with rather than alternating between the two corner patterns that she gives options for. This meant that I could fairly easily let my hands run on auto pilot, which was good since I was listening to an
audio book which required I pay attention to follow the plot. I used up the entire light skein of yarn for the center.
The border was mostly the same as in the pattern, with rows of sc around to create a thick edging. I used up the larger of the two yarn balls of the darker blue. At this point I stopped the blanket and started the scarf for the sister.
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| Way to short and wide, so I redid the whole thing. |
I used a contrasting variegated yarn for hers in pinks, purple, blues and greens and just did a simple double crochet scarf (pattern below) with two stripes and scalloped edging on each end to tie it into the look of the blanket. By working this scarf now, I could then use up the dark blue yarn needed for the scarf and then safely use the rest for the blanket. It is important to note that since the dark blue I was using was baby yarn also, I had to use two strands held together to get the same thickness as the worsted acrylic variegated girly yarn.
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| wide scallops |
I then finished up the blanket with a few more single crochet border rows and a scalloped edging. The scallops I made cover more area by skipping two sc on each side of the 5dc instead of just one sc. I did this to make the yarn go father and somehow I feel wider scallops are less girly.
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| finished blanket |
Of course when I was done I measured up both these items and realized they both came out a little on the small side. The blanket was fine really, a standard baby blanket is around 32"x32", and mine stretches out to that size easily (unstretched it is 28" x 28"). The scarf on the other hand is 35" long, which is about a foot shorter than the last ones I made. So I frogged the whole thing and reworked it to be 12 dc across instead of 15. Just that small change increased the length to 44" and the width to 4". I think that makes it a better width for shorter necks anyway.
I really like the finished set. The blanket is just interesting enough to not be boring but still is a very usable item. Sometimes I worry baby blankets are too fancy or too large and are intimidating to then want to use for messy kids.
Difficulty: Easy
Time to complete: 20 hours
Scarf Pattern:
1. In main color yarn, Foundation double crochet 12 across.
2. Chain 2 and Turn, 12 dc across. Switch to blue at end of row.
3. Chain 2 and Turn, 12 dc across in blue or accent color yarn. Switch to main yarn.
4-5. Chain 2 and Turn, 12 dc across in main yarn. Switch to blue yarn at end.
6. Chain 2 and Turn, 12 dc across in accent/blue yarn. Switch to main yarn.
7-77. Chain 2 and Turn, 12 dc across in main yarn.
78-81. Repeat rows 3-6 for other ends stripes.
82-83. Chain 2 and Turn, 12 dc across in main yarn.
Scallops: Switch to blue or accent color and ch 1. Skip 1, and do 5 dc in next, skip 1 and slip stitch in next. Repeat two more times across for a total of three shells on the end. Bind off.
Go back to other end, attach accent yarn and complete three shells on the other end. Bind off.
Work in ends to finish.
