Crocheted Baby Blankets

I have been a bit under the weather recently and so have been staying in, quietly crocheting, rather than being out, getting into trouble.

A colleague of mine at work is just about to leave to have her first child, which is the perfect excuse for me to hook up a little blanket! I got a little over-excited when I went to buy wool, so much so that I had enough to crochet two. Kate doesn’t know if she is having a boy or girl, so I needed to stay gender-neutral on colour.

Both blankets use Sirdar Snuggly DK yarn in a variety of shades.

 

The idea was to make one heavier-weight blanket, for colder weather, and one lighter-weight one for Spring and Summer. Using my new crochet skills, I used the sedge stitch I recently learned for the white centre on both. However, I used a slightly larger crochet hook for the Summer weight blanket (a 6) than for the Winter weight (a 5), so that the stitches were looser.

I couldn’t pick between all the lovely shades of Snuggly in the shop, so I ended up bringing 5 home, and making a brilliantly colourful rainbow blanket! For this one, on the border I did 2 rows in each colour of alternating clusters, which gave a lovely, thick, heavy border.

For the Spring and Summer one, I tried to use stitches which would give the effect of lovely bright flowers – I decided that the yellow and green, with a touch of purple, reminded me of glorious daffodils. I began with two rows of Ripple Shell stitch, from Erika Knight’s Crochet Workshop Book. I then stitched up a row of brackets for clusters, and ended with clusters made of 4 yellow double trebles, with a single chain space in the middle of each cluster.

I am really happy with how the blankets turned out! I have sent Kate the Summer weight blanket, as I am sure by the time her baby arrives, the sun will be shining and Spring will finally be here! I will just have to hope that my next friend to announce a new arrival does so once the weather is cooling down again!

 

Hopefully, once the little one is here, I will be able to update you with a picture of the blanket in use. In the meantime, here is Andrew, one of my bears, modelling his seasonal looks.