Thursday 17 July 2014

Welcome to the world...err...happy year and a half birthday!

I always have the best intentions to deliver a "Welcome to the World" blankie to babies the first time I get the privilege of meeting them.  Too bad I am so slow at knitting!  My best intentions often turn into "Happy 18 Months Birthday".  Especially when a whole bunch of babies are born all around the same time.  If one blanket takes a long time, it pushes back all the others, too.  I am starting to get quicker now though, and actually have a couple blankets in the bank for babies not yet earthside!

When I found out that my brother-in-law and his girlfriend were expecting, I promptly pulled out some knitting pattern books and selected a blanket featuring dragonflies, to fit in with the theme of the nursery.  I selected green and white colours to be gender neutral, as they decided not to find out the sex of the baby beforehand.  
Parker's dragonfly blanket
I worked at this blanket for months, the baby's birth day came and went, and then his first birthday, too.  Dang, it was slow progress for this blanket.  And then when I was finally done with the knitting, the dragonflies had to be added in with double knit embroidery.  I'm not going to lie, I seriously considered omitting the dragonflies on the body of the blanket.  But in the end, I didn't want to be a quitter.  So, Happy Year and a Half Birthday Parker!  
Parker loving his blankie!
With Parker's blanket finished, I could start a blanket for a close friend of mine's baby.   I knew that my friend was having a boy, so I had selected the pattern I wanted to use (see it  here ) and bought some nice blue yarn.  Again, my best intentions wanted to deliver this blanket to him in the hospital, but in reality, I hadn't even started it yet the day he was born.  This blanket was knit in panels and I used a single crochet stitch to fasten them together.  I modified the pattern to be larger, since I wasn't presenting it to a newborn.  I made the seed stitch portion wider and the whole thing longer. Instead of the seed stitch border in the pattern, I made a straightforward crochet border instead.  Then I laid it out and looked at it and was honestly a little bored.  I wanted to do something else to really personalize the blanket for Mason.
Mason's fox blanket
I made a long crochet foundation chain and shaped it into Mason's handwritten name, then attached it to the blanket.  That was better, but still not enough.  Mason's nursery has the most beautiful trees painted on the wall by his daddy, and there is a woodland theme throughout.  So I found a pattern for a little fox applique, and whipped that up, and I think it was perfect!  So I attached that as well, and it was finally ready to gift...... ummm..... Happy Year and a Half Birthday Mason!
Foxy closeup


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