Of Babies and Blankets

Way back in August my cousin had her second child, a girl, born with the best birthdate ever (8/9/10)!

Soon after I started a blanket with the intention of giving it to her for the colder months.  Well here it is December already and I'm not quite done.

Because this blanket is HUGE!  The pattern I used, a Catherine Wheel crochet stitch pattern is based on a 10 stitch repeat.  At this point I don't remember how many stitches were in the starting chain - 80?  100?  150? More?

All I know is that this can not be referred to as a baby blanket.  This is more like a toddler blanket, a small afghan really.  I've worked on it nearly exclusively while sitting at the cold ice rink while my daughter has her lessons.  If I had to estimate I would say it's about 80% done.  Yet I probably need about 10 more hours on this thing until I'm satisfied with the proportions.  It is large enough to keep my entire lower half warm while I work on it.

I'm switching colors every two rows and each row takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, depending on attention level.  Because of the multiple colors it has strong horizontal lines and the blanket is worked from the bottom up, so to speak.  Right now it is wider than it is tall.  I need to keep going until it is at least square for my symmetry-loving brain to deem it acceptable for gifting.

Fiber snobs, sheild your eyes, for I have made this out of soft baby-melting acrylic.  Chances are quite high that this blanket will be peed on, pooped on, spit up on, spilled on, dragged on the ground, etc.  It needs to be durable and washable, and it needed to cost less than a car payment to make.



I've kept it under wraps for quite some time, but I'm giving you all a sneak peek.  As soon as it is 100% complete (and gifted) I will post a photograph of it in all it's glory.  The colors remind me of an ice cream parlor and I love how the pattern has a bit of a 70's retro feel to it.

Hopefully my cousin will like it.