afghan

Welcoming a New Nephew

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My sister-in-law just had a baby on September 19th (a week after his due date). He’s my second nephew, joining the ranks of 5 nieces (none of whom he’s related to, although he does have loads of girl cousins on his mom’s side of the family – he’s the son of my brother and his wife). My first nephew is also the son of my brother and his wife, ironically enough, which means my mom is blessed with 5 grandsons and no granddaughters.

But enough about the family make-up. A new baby means, of course, a baby gift!

Here’s what I started with:

And here’s what I made:

When it came time to start crocheting, none of the patterns I looked at “floated my boat” so to speak, so I just did a basic one row of single crochet, one row of double crochet, repeat. Even with such basic stitches, I thought it turned out pretty :). Let me know what you think of it.

Cheers!

Baby Shower Gift

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My hubby’s cousin is expecting a baby girl about a month after our Small Fry is scheduled to arrive (4 1/2 weeks and counting!). Her baby shower is coming up in just under 2 weeks, so I made this blanket for her.

I didn’t make up the pattern; I got it from here. But when I was first starting to stitch it, it wasn’t exactly what I expected, so I took a couple of pictures along the way to explain to you guys what to expect so you’re not as surprised-slash-almost-confused as I was. In order to make the additional pictures make sense, I’m going to include the instructions here, but remember, I did not make up this design. 

Supplies needed: Crochet hooks (sizes noted in instructions), yarn (1 skein of “Caron International 1 pound” or other brand to equal 16 ounces/454 grams, 812 yards/742 meters), yarn or tapestry needle (for weaving in the ends), time, and love.

With a size K-10.5 (6.5 mm) crochet hook, chain 94.
Row 1: Turn. Skip the first chain. Single crochet (SC) in each additional chain – 93 SC total.
Row 2: Turn. Skip the first SC. Double Crochet (DC) in the next one. DC in the skipped SC. Continue to end of row. Chain 1.
Row 3: Turn. SC in each DC all the way across. Chain 2.
Rows 4-68: Repeat rows 2 and 3.
Edging: SC all the way around the blanket, except for the last row of SCs you did as part of the blanket. When you get to that row, slip stitch to the first SC. Switch to a size J-10 (6.0 mm) crochet hook. In every other SC all the way around,  {SC, chain 1, SC}. All three of those stitches happen in the same stitch. When you get back to the beginning point, slip stitch together. Fasten off and cut yarn. Weave in ends.

So that’s it :). I hope you enjoy making this project as much as I did!

Polar Bear Blanket for Munchkin

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After finishing the two afghans for the new baby, Seahawk (my 8yo) said he wanted one of his own; Munchkin (my 5yo) said he didn’t. Well, after seeing Seahawk’s blanket coming together, he changed his mind!

I wanted to do a different pattern than the one I’d been using for his, just for a change, so I had him look through a few fairly simple patterns I’d saved over the previous couple of weeks, and he picked this one. The ironic thing is that I didn’t realize until I started reading the pattern and stitching, but it turns out it was the exact same stitch pattern as the blue/blue afghan for Small Fry and the red/blue/green one for Seahawk! This one’s just put together a little bit differently (and done with a smaller hook). It’s a bit small for him, unfortunately, but he loves it all the same :). My plan is to just add additional borders at some point – if he’ll ever let me have it back long enough to do so!

The bear has lovingly been named “Little Quilt Bob.” (Munchkin is just learning the difference between the different kinds of blankets, and since prior to this, all I’ve made are quilts, every blanket I make is a “quilt” now.)

I found the pattern over on the website for Red Heart yarn. Click HERE if you’re interested in making one of your own!

Afghan for Seahawk

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As mentioned before, this pattern is one of my most used. My eldest son, after seeing the blue/blue blanket for his future-brother, wanted one of his own, so he selected the colors and I put in the work. I’m not going to post the tutorial video again since it’s the same one. Just look at the “Afghan 2 for the New Baby” post to find it.

Afghan 2 for Small Fry

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After finishing two fairly major projects, I was feeling confident enough to try something completely new, so I found a tutorial video for this pattern. It’s become one of my go-to patterns now. This one is smaller than the beige one; my thinking was that it could be used for “out and about” once Son #3 is here–it’s big enough to cover a carseat (or a baby in a carseat) completely, but small enough that it will be convenient.

It’s not perfectly clear in the picture, but it’s royal blue and sky blue (not white). The colors compliment each other beautifully :).

Here’s the tutorial video:

Afghan 1 for Small Fry

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I’ve always been afraid of crochet; my first two experiences with it weren’t exactly positive. The first was when I was pregnant with my oldest son. My late mother-in-law taught me a basic stitch so that I could make a baby blanket. The project took me most of the pregnancy, so I didn’t keep up with it – I’m an “instant gratification” kind of girl. When I got pregnant with my second son, I had an urge to make a similar blanket for him, so I did – my second major project. That one didn’t go any quicker than the first, so I dropped the hobby yet again.

When I stopped writing around December 2011/January 2012, my husband noticed that I seemed “aimless,” so he suggested I learn to knit. In his opinion, it would be a good hobby that I could do nearly anywhere. I thought, “What the heck,” and picked up some yarn and knitting needles from our local Jo-Ann store. Well, it turns out that knitting was even harder than crocheting! I tried for hours with YouTube videos and couldn’t get anything to stay on the needles, so the next day I went back to Jo-Ann and bought a set of crochet hooks instead – even if it was slow, at least I already knew how to do it. I had two skeins of yarn to use up, after all. My “first” project was a purse (essentially a piece of crochet “fabric” about 12×19 folded in half and sewn up the sides to make a pocket with a 3×36 strap). I was able to finish the entire thing (including a zippered liner sewn into the crocheted shell) in about 3 days. Talk about encouraging! I’d never been able to crochet that fast before. That took one full skein of yarn, but I still had one more. I headed back to YouTube to find a pattern I liked for a baby blanket. This was the one I came up with. We found out we were having another boy shortly before I finished this, so I added a royal blue border when I was done, and voilà! A baby blanket that didn’t take the entire pregnancy to complete!

Here’s the video I used for making this one: