I was in the mood for knitting a baby blanket and my mind went back to a gift that was given to me by a friend when my daughter was a baby. It was a small blanket and came with the promise that it would be very useful. Well, it was. The smaller size made it perfect for tucking over my daughter when she was in her pram or car seat. There was no excess fabric to drown her, to collect dust from the ground or floor of the car, or to trip me up when carrying her. My friend was a new mum and, like me, fairly short. So she knew exactly what would be useful.
I had the following pattern in my Ravelry queue: Lilac Blossom Baby Blanket by Marianna and it seemed perfect. I followed the pattern as written and ended up with a width of 22". I stopped knitting when the blanket was 27" long to keep it in proportion. It is easy to increase the number of cast on stitches to knit a bigger blanket if that is what you are aiming for.
I used a gender-neutral cream Robin Double Knit yarn. I found a big bag of this yarn in a charity shop last year. It receives mixed reviews on Ravelry. But I really liked it. It is soft and bouncy and, being acrylic, will wash well. I will even look for this yarn again when I have used up the remaining balls.
The combination of the bouncy yarn and the slightly puffy knitted stitch makes this blanket cosy. The stitch is basically 2 x 2 ribbing with something clever happening every fourth row to make it interesting. Though this is not strictly a reversible pattern, it looks good on both sides of the blanket. You might just about be able to see the detail in the next photo.
The blanket used less than 200g of yarn, so I had enough left to knit a matching hat.
This time I followed the hat pattern from the Lilac Blossom Baby Set by Marianna. It was so easy and took only a couple of hours.
Here they are together I think a matching set has more "wow effect" than individual items.
The hat will fit a baby aged 0-3 months and the set will go to a future family baby.
REMINDER: there is still time to enter my Big Birthday Giveaway. For more details see my post here.
This is past WOW. Too sweet, and happy the baby's mommy to get it.
ReplyDeletelove this Una, and lovely to hear you managed to get a bargain in the charity shop - yarn knits up lovely to me xx
ReplyDeleteThis matching set is gorgeous Una. Thank you for the info about the patterns and I must check them out on Ravelry.
ReplyDeleteI am sure that a Mum will love to be able to wrap their baby in this beautiful blanket and be able to have a matching hat to keep them warm too! xx
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely little set, Una. I'm one who doesn't like Robin yarn, perhaps I need to give it another try.
ReplyDeleteIt was perfect for this blanket and hat. It would also make lovely shawls and scarves. But I think I would find it too soft for a jumper for myself.
DeleteSuch a pretty pattern :) I bet it will be much loved and used :)
ReplyDeleteThat's a lovely pair, Una! I like the stitch. You can see it in the close-up photo. Very nice! I can't imagine having a pattern queue :) But so glad there are experts who can do that kind of thing. Might have to go check it out. And it's true that most baby blankets are about twice as big as needed. Always extra fabric to mess with. This smaller one is just right.
ReplyDeleteIt's a lovely set Una and that pattern is so pretty. I love Robin yarn and use it a lot. :) x
ReplyDeleteHi! I just found you through a link from Mrs. McCawber's site..
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Would love to see more of you....but didn't see a Subscribe link...did I miss it?
...and hello to you! My left hand sidebar has various ways to follow my blog including subscribing. I hope it works. I've never tried that particular method.
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