JC Baby Blanket

I am crocheting my fourth baby blanket in the Lion Brand Marbled Baby Throw pattern.  I love that pattern!  It is easy and you can totally zone out and it's all good.

This time this blanket is for a friend at work.  She went out on maternity leave and she will be due back really soon, so I really need to get on the horn if I want to send it to her before her return.

I am using Loops & Threads Impeccable (100% Acrylic, 128g each) in Clear Blue, Soft Fern and White.  While I am working with it, I am not loving this yarn; it is very stiff.  I am used to doing this large project with Berroco Comfort and that is relaxed and not so much strain on your wrists to get it out of the skein and to manipulate.  I wanted to save a few bucks (in case I never see this gal again; who knows, she may love staying at home and quit her job at work.  It would not be the first time I have seen this happen after the first child is born).

There is Razzy, helping me crochet.  Yarn attracts the cats, no doubt.  I ended up using one whole skein of each color and a little bit from a second skein. 

These types of blankets relax the more you wash them.  Acrylic is not the softest yarn, but it is sturdy.  It can withstand lots of wear and tear.

It will be nice to have a little blanket to cover either mommy or baby during those late night feedings or a nice square to lay down for the baby to hang out on the floor.

This was a simple granny square thing, around and around.  Perfect project for a beginner crocheter and a perfect project to use up scraps of yarn.

Bata Blanket #2

Yes, I am making the Marble Baby Throw from Lion Brand Yarn again.  This time for Vince's sister, who is having a boy.  I have made it twice now, they are listed below:

• Bebe Throw
• Bata Blanket - Part 1
• Bata Blanket - Finish

 

I named these blankets for the language of the recipients.  Bebe for my girlfriend who has Spanish spoken in her house and Bata for my Filipino boyfriend, whose these blankets went/will go to his Filipino friend and sister.  Bebe and Bata mean baby.

I am using the same yarn I used for the Bata Blanket: Berroco Comfort (50% Cotton, 50% Acrylic).  The colors I chose this time are Seedling (green) and Coffeeberry Heather (dark brown).

I checked out her gift registry and she had lime green and dark brown bedding as her color theme.  So, I did my best, even though Seedling is a bit darker than the lime green of the bedding.

I am crocheting, mainly at night, while TV watching.  But during the week, it is hard to have more than 30 minutes to work on it, so I have been reading.  I am crocheting the bulk of it on the weekends.  I have to finish by the beginning of September, for she is due September 12. Plenty of time.

Famous last words....

It is more than half complete.  This blanket takes a total of 4 skeins of yarn.  Since it is only 2 colors, 2 skeins each of Comfort color.  I am on my second set of skeins = more than half done.

In search of some natural lighting and background, I may have chosen poorly because the bushes are almost camouflaging the blanket!  You get the idea and this picture accurately portrays the colors of the yarn.

Think of this pattern as one big Granny Square.  I love how it is so easy. 

 

I have a feeling that this will not be the last Marbled Baby throw I crochet this year.  There is always someone having a baby and off the top of my head I can think of two women I know that I could crochet this for.  So much for knitting for myself...better warm up the crochet hook.

Bata Blanket - Finish

Bata Blanket is done!!  I only used up about 1 skein of each color.  If I wanted to make it bigger, I could have bought another of each color, but when I measured it, it was already larger than the recommended size of 30" x 30".  

I started the project on May 19th and finished on June 1st.  I first posted it here:

• Bata Blanket - Part 1

The pic of the yarn above is all that was left.  Not too shabby.

The finished blanket was so cozy once it was done.  I had draped it over my legs while Vince I watched a movie.  Perfect-o!

I think the color combo is really nice together.  The light and dark makes it a girl blanket, but not strictly a baby blanket.  I will ship it off to baby Kaitlyn next week.  I hope she will enjoy it for years to come.

Bata Blanket - Part 1

Happy Memorial Day!

Bata, in the Filipino language, means Baby.  I have decided to crochet a baby blanket and give it to Vince's best friend who just had a baby girl in February and call it my Bata Blanket.  It is a pattern that I have crocheted in the past, so I will not be reinventing the wheel on this one.

The pattern is the Marbled Baby Throw from the huge selection at Lion Brand Yarns.  I had crocheted this for my friend's baby last summer, the CB Bebe Throw.  Here is a photo from that project:

Oliver's Blankie

I hear from Crissta and Oliver loves the blanket and sleeps with it every night!  I love it!!!

So, since it was a hit with one baby, let's go for two!  Vince's friend lives out in California and just had his second child.  Way back in 2010, I crocheted the same baby blanket pattern, like, 4 times.  His son got one of them.

Mateo's Blankie

Ok, let's get down to the details of this blanket.  I am using Berroco Comfort (50% Nylon, 50% Acrylic), worsted weight.  I am using two different purples (Raspberry Coulis & Grape Fizz), a teal blue (Dutch Teal) and a pink (Ballet Pink) bought at the Brandon Yarn Boutique.  I am using a size I hook. 

The Ballet Pink and Grape Fizz are light colors and the Rasperry and Dutch Teal are darker, more saturated.  The mix of them together area great! 

Berroco Comfort

The pattern is your basic granny square.  Just one big square that you change colors after two rounds.  I started this blanket last Sat, May 19.

The START!!

The above pic is what the start looks like, with all of the colors being used once.  From the middle, the colors are Dutch Teal, Raspberry Coulis, Grape Fizz and then Ballet Pink.  Once the pattern is established, you don't even need to lug around the pattern anymore and the colors start to come together.

Love this color combo!

I chose these colors over the Comfort Baby colors because the saturated colors give it such a pop, that I'm sure the bata will enjoy it as a toddler, too.

Vince and I have a plan that is being worked on for the sewing room!  I'm so excited to be moving forward with something in that room.  Once I had unpacked everything, it looked just as worse as when the stuff was in boxes!  Preview: I helped cut wood on a compound miter saw, I sanded with a belt sander and I am an expert on wood stain.......

Star Baby Blanket - Part 3

Hooray!  I finally finished the Star Baby Blanket!  This took me about 2 weeks, I think I started on Aug 4, which was a Saturday.

Here is a close-up of a corner:

I did have to go out and buy one more skein of each blue, but I only went around the blanket with one set of two rounds with each.  These skeins will join my bin of stash yarn.  I was trying to stash-bust using yarn I already had, but alas, I'm left with the roughly the same amount.

I will have to make scarves as gifts to stash-bust these skeins.  Anyway, here is the final picture:

It came out very nice.  It's not perfect, but I think that one won't even notice.  If you look real close, a skilled crocheter will pick out the irregularities, but the layperson...doubtful.  I will send this blanket as a gift soon.

I am now at a loss of what to work on next.  I have yarn for projects, but I fell like if I'm going to make a few gifts for Christmas, I should get knitting or crocheting now and put my personal projects aside until Dec/Jan.  Doing that, I then feel some anxiety that I must do the gifts and pick a nice project or the recipient will not like it and think it some ole granny gift.  

I will think it over and you shall see in my coming posts, what I decide to work on next.  Have a great week!

Related Posts:

• Star Baby Blanket - Part 1
• Star Baby Blanket - Part 2

Bebe Throw

I had a baby shower to attend yesterday and so I have been working on crocheting a baby throw.  Crochet goes by much faster than knitting and I was running out of time (shocking, I know) and needed one.  Her husband's family is Puerto Rican, so they are very immersed in the Spanish culture, so they call "baby", "bebe".  That will be the name of my throw.

I chose an easy crochet throw from the Lion Brand collection of patterns and it is pretty much one big granny square.  Here is a pic from their website:

Isn't is sweet?  It is a throw that I believe I can start and finish in time for the shower.  I went to Knit 'N Knibble and browsed their huge selection of yarn and settled on the following:

It is Snuggly by Sirdar and it is a dk weight baby yarn that is 55% Nylon/45% Arcrylic.  I normally do not like using arcrylics because they are often not soft or are prone to pilling.  This acrylic blend yarn is definitely the exception: very soft, does not have that dense, plasticy feeling you can feel when you rub it between your fingers.  It is lightweight and really a pleasure to work up.  I bought 2 of each color and used an I hook.

I chose 3 colors rather than 4, as the pattern suggests.  This is a pattern that you can do any color in any order and not worry about it.  The sex of the baby will be a surprise, so the 3 colors I chose were a buttercup yellow (Daisy), a sage green (Summer Lime) and a light blue.  I thought the blue was another shade of green at the time I purchased it, but when worked up, it is definitely blue. 

I started that very evening with the center square:

I will repeat the color order as you see above.  I will crochet two rounds of each color.  I took this throw in the car with me and crochet to and from work ( I carpool and often am not the driving), so this worked up even faster than I imagined.

I'm almost done in the above picture.  I bought 2 balls of each color and plan on crocheting until I run out of yarn.  I ran out of yellow first, which is supposed to be the color I end on: perfect!

Here are a few of the finished throw:

Now, here is a picture from the baby shower:

She loved it!  She said it was very nostalgic from her own childhood.   That was the only homemade gift at the shower, which had to complete with some pretty nice gifts!  A homemade gift is special in it's own way.

Now, I am off to start another baby blanket for a friend that had her baby already.  Better late than never, I always say.  It will be worth the wait.