I'm going to be a first time grandma!
My youngest son (Jeff) and his wife (Gin) are expecting a baby in mid November, soon after my son turns 40. Jeff writes, "We're totally excited and freaked out." This means I am ready to create "grandma goodies." Here is my first goodie, a hooded baby blanket.
This baby blanket is knitted with a double strand of two kinds of yarn: Lion Brand Pound of Love in Antique White and a matching boucle, JoAnn's Rainbow Boucle. The Pound of Love yarn makes the blanket strong and durable; the boucle makes it soft and lush. Both are acrylic yarns and that means the blanket is washable. The pattern is a Lion Brand one that is found on the inside of the skein wrapper. One of my friends, Marilyn, has made the blanket on more than one occasion for baby showers and charity events and recommended it so I gave it a try. She didn't use boucle, however, that was my idea.
As of this posting, the gender of the baby is not known. Apparently, this baby is modest and kept turning away from the ultra sound instrument. When the gender is known, then grandma can make more gender specific goodies.
June 24, 2010
In the meantime, here is my second grandma creation...daddy and baby matching USC hats for football time. The USC Trojans produce formidable football teams each fall. USC's colors are cardinal red and a deep yellow. The color here is not quite true, the cardinal red is really a darker red than appears in this photo.
June 25, 2010
20 week checkup reveals that the baby is a BOY. Now I can set to work making lots of boy things.
June 26, 2010
Tonight I started a little soft, blue baby sweater using Lion Brand Microspun sport weight yarn. The sweater will be a raglan sleeve cardigan knitted from the top down using size 3 and size 5 needles. I'm done with the neck ribbing and am a few rows into the main body of the sweater done. I used this yarn before to make a little hat for my cousin's grandson and I have already made a little newborn hat for my own future grandson using the same yarn. I will have plenty of yarn left over to make socks and mitts, too because a few weeks ago when Michael's was closing out this yarn in a few colors I picked up some skeins at less than half price.
July 27, 2010
I finished the sweater a week or two ago. (See photo that follows.) I was concerned about the edge of the neck fraying so I crocheted a little edging at the neckline as well as down the front placket, too. I have also knitted newborn booties and a hat using the same Microspun yarn. I have another newborn crocheted hat done, too. The sweater came out a little larger than I anticipated and seems more of a 3-6 month size than newborn size. I don't have enough of the same yarn to knit a larger hat but if I use what blue I have and the same white yarn I used to edge the neck and placket, I could probably make a little larger hat.
I work a little at a time on a knitted light blue blanket in a basket weave pattern. I especially like to take this project when riding as a passenger in the car. Right now I am halfway done with this blanket. I just did the math on how many individual stitches I have knitted on this blanket. There are 104 rows, so far, with 236 stitches per row. All together the total is 25,544 stitches! Only about 25,000 stitches to go!
August 30, 2010
With only a few rows left, I had to buy another huge skein of yarn to complete the blanket.
August 31, 2010
The blanket is done! 49,088 knitted stitches! It measures 44x30 inches. That was a lot of work! (Next time I will crochet a blanket. It takes less time and is less stressful on my hands.) I was just about to feel relieved and complete and then at the last moment I decided to add a little edging all the way around the perimeter of the blanet. I had some soft, white crochet thread that I had used on baby projects in the past and figured it would be perfect. I made a simple, scalloped edging and would have made it fancier and more intricate but I only had enough of the soft crochet thread to go around twice. Simple scallops, it is.
Update: Baby Max was born November 17, 2010. He weighed six pounds even. Here is a photo of Max at about seven weeks wearing the sweater and booties.
Thanks for your question. I'm sorry I wasn't as clear as might have been. The two strands means total: ONE strand of EACH type of yarn—Lion Brand Pound of Love and the matching boucle. The boucle was a very nice addition because it is so soft.
ReplyDeleteI am using this same combination making a little woolly lamb (amigurumi) for Easter. Again, the boucle is giving it that woolly, soft look and feel.
Anonymous, I am SO SORRY, I accidently clicked the wrong button and deleted/rejected your comment/question. I have copied and pasted it here along with the response, which is found just above.
ReplyDeleteI have a question about the baby blanket you made for Max. When you say "This baby blanket is knitted with a double strand of two kinds of yarn: Lion Brand Pound of Love in Antique White and a matching boucle" Does that mean two strands of pound of love and two strands of boucle or just one strand of each? I thought that was a great idea to add the boucle but I wasn't sure about the strand amount since the original pattern calls for two strands of pound of love only. Thank you!