Baby's First 1.0

This summer has been my season for baby blankets.  I found this easy V-pattern stitch blanket on the Lion Brand website that I am crocheting like it's going out of style.  It is made with Baby's First (55% acrylic & 45% cotton).  I have made two of these blankets so far and I have three more to go.  I'm a beginner when it comes to crochet, so doing two complete projects in a matter of months is huge for me.  The first one went to one of my cousins, he and his wife just had a boy, so I crocheted it in one solid color of turquoise blue (aka Sea Sprite) and stumbled through it with YouTube instruction when I thought I was doing the double crochet wrong.  Let's just say that my stitch was not looking exactly like the photo.  It was not incorrect, it just was not pronounced like in the photo with the young tot with the blanket wrapped around her.  Mine looked like I crocheted it too tight.  I guess I could go up a hook size.  The pattern calls for a K, so since this was a baby blanket, I did not bother to do a gauge swatch.  Eeh, swatch, smarch.  I finished it and it looked just fine.  I sent it off and have not heard anything back, so no news is good news?  Maybe he thanked me via Facebook which we are friends.  (It has been awhile since I've been on there).

The next blanket I made I was a bit more adventurous where I striped it with two colors.  Whoo-hoo, color change!  This blanket was for my boyfriend's close friend who lives in CA.  He and his wife are expecting a boy as well.  So I chose the same turquoise blue, but the alternating stripe was a sage green (aka Beanstalk).  Now, I call it striping, but it constituted 4 large stripes of about 8 rows to each color.  That's a stripe in my book.  My sister happen to be visiting and she helped me with the edge.  I thought I was doing it wrong because it was not a very exciting edge, but I was doing it right.  It was a picot edge and the picot looked different each time I did it.  My sis assured me that it was fine.  Below is the completed project with the blue and green stripes.

Second Blanket

The third and fourth blankets will go my close friend's sister that is expecting twin girls.  I was invited to the baby shower but could not make it, so I commited to making the blankets and then mailing them to her.  Below is the start of the blanket.  I chained and then could not even finish the first row that night because I was so sleepy.  I literally fell asleep in my crochet!  

The Riveting First Row

My goal is to have them completed by the end of October, but honestly, I thought I would have them done by now.  My progress is a bit slow, but I have been trying to get to them on the weekends.  This one is going to be pink (aka Fairy Tale) and yellow (Honey Bee) striped. 
I love starting projects but sometimes figuring out a pattern you have not done before or getting to the gauge swatch, can be a drag.  When you get new yarn, you just want to start either knitting or crocheting, you don't want the due diligence of reading through the pattern to make sure you understand or want to take the time to check gauge.  I know, it is for your own good, but I hate that part of starting a project.  I love the start because you are finally doing something with that yarn.  You have this feeling of promise in the project that you often lose when you misread a step or you have to go through two or three gauge swatches to finally get the right size needle or hook.  I find that I usually do not start the real project the night I do the gauge swatch because I am a tight knitter and end up trying out two, sometimes three sets of needles trying to get it right.  All the while telling myself that it is for my own good in the end.  But with this baby blanket pattern, I don't care about gauge, so I can just start!  So, falling asleep during the start of a project is a first for me.  The excitment has faded for me with this blanket, but I am determined to do what I say I will do, which is five blankets.  Below is where I am right now.  I have almost finished the first stripe of pink.

First Stripe

The feel of this yarn is so soft, so I don't mind using it at all.  The pattern is easy enough that I can crochet while I watch tv, so it really is a great project for the person who has over 20 hours of recorded tv shows on their DVR.  My fav shows right now is The Glades that show on A&E on Sundays at 10pm and Rizzoli & Isles on TNT on Mondays at 10pm.  I can say 99% of the time I do not watch a show when it actually shows so the DVR is the best thing since the timer on the VCR!

I will post my progress on the baby blankets in installments.  What projects are in your closet that you need some motivation on?  C'mon, get to one of them!  Let me know if I can help....