The Homemade Nursery: A special blankie for a special baby

As you may remember from my post about my Nurture Hope quilt, I am quite fortunate to be pregnant.  My husband and I had been holding off on doing much in terms of preparation for the baby until we took holidays back in November.  Then we got started and have been plugging away every since.  I'm going to share individual projects we embarked on over the past few months, and then a final blog post with the big reveal of the whole room. 

I adore making knitted blankies for new babies.  So of course I had to make one for my new baby!!  And I wanted it to be the most special blankie I have ever made.  We don't know the gender of our little chinchilla (birthday surprise!), so I also wanted to keep it pretty neutral.  After much browsing on Pinterest, I found a perfect pattern by Leyla Alieva on Ravelry.  It uses strategic increases and decreases to create a leafy pattern, and it is gorgeous.  

In progress... those leaves!

I selected a bamboo silk yarn because it was so soft and luxurious, without being fluffy.  I wanted something with a smooth strand to really highlight the pattern.  And bonus points for being a natural material.  I often knit with acrylic yarns, but I wanted to splurge and get something real and of good quality this time.  This blanket is knit with two strands at a time, which makes the overall blanket a little heavier with a really nice drape.  

Finished, but not blocked

I increased the overall dimensions of the blanket because I wanted it a little larger than the pattern's size.  I just knit more leaf repeats across for more width, and a couple extra row repeats for more length.  It was an easy pattern to customize this way.  The finished blanket is just wonderful.  After some gentle blocking, the leaves and the spaces between them have such good dimesion, and the yarn held up well and is still so soft and has a nice lustre to it.  

After blocking.... so much definition between leaves.... it really is a special blankie.

The blanket fits perfectly with the rest of the nursery decor, and will hopefully be a favourite for years to come for our little one.