Two weekends ago, Scott’s mom asked if I’d be interested in knitting a blanket for someone in their family who was having their first baby. I immediately took to Ravelry, found this Leafy Baby Blanket pattern, and took off to Michael’s to find appropriate yarn.
Now, I’m never a huge fan of acrylic, but I tend to use it for blankets because it’s easy to care for. Especially if you’re a new parent, there’s nothing more annoying than having to delicately hand-wash something that’s frequently used just because it contains natural fibers that will felt and shrink at the mere sight of a stain. But I will say that the yarn I used (Loops & Threads Snuggly Wuggly) was pretty good for an acrylic and softened up a ton after running it through the wash for some light blocking. I might still try to relax the fabric a bit more by taking my steamer to it, but there’s only so much you can do with yarn that doesn’t have any memory.
The pattern is easily adjusted to multiple sizes as long as you can do basic math. For this project, I chose a newborn size because having blankets in a crib with a newborn isn’t just straight-up not recommended, but terrifies the bejeebus out of me, so I figured it can be used in a carrier or stroller instead of being hung on display or stored away until the kid is old enough to cling to it responsibly.
I used two strands of the yarn to encourage drape, which was recommended by the pattern, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to fiddle around with using two ends of a ball or yarn or having to lug around two of them. I sucked it up, though, and I’m glad it did, as it drapes beautifully and will look great whether it’s hanging out on the back of a rocking chair or keeping baby warm.
Of course, my least favorite part of making blankets (other than the fact they can be huge and boring) is that the bind off usually ends up being too tight. I made sure to bind off in seed stitch, which helped make it a bit stretchier so the blanket maintains the same width at the top and bottom.
Overall, I’m really happy with how this turned out. It was interesting enough that I didn’t put it down and forget about it after three years, as is my normal process when asked to make a blanket, but easy enough that you could memorize each row without much issues or needing to stare at the pattern.
That said, this project is what made me finally download KnitCompanion, and I’m glad I did. I was able to easily mark off where I was on the chart and I’ve since started using it for non-charted projects and have quickly marked my place without needing to print something out. If you’ve been looking for a project tracker/knitting app that has multiple stitch/row counters and helps you keep your place, then KnitCompanion comes highly recommended by me.
All in all, this puppy took me a week to knit and I’m not mad about it. I needed a break from my Dotted Rays, which is boring me to death with endless rows of garter stitch, so this was a perfect distraction! I may or may not have also been putting off lots of wedding planning because every day, 400 more things pop up and I need a mental vacation!