Baby Blankets Galore

I've been on a bit of a baby blanket bender....  I've made 5 in the last couple months for friends at church having babies and people that Dan works with.  It was tons of fun - but I'm kinda glad to get a break from baby blankets now!!  

All of the yarn was Baby Bee from Hobby Lobby - I love the way the yarn works up and how it feels, but sometimes the number of knots and other issues with the yarn drive me a bit nuts...  

The patterns are from all over the place this first one is just an icicle stitch pattern with a simple striped border.  

I'm pretty sure this was a pattern I found online, but now I can't find where...  

This one is from an Annie's Attic Baby Blanket book

This pattern came from this website

This is another one I found online, and I also can't figure out where, but I think it was called a heirloom blanket pattern....

Baby Kai's Blanket

My sister just had a new baby and for her new baby girl, I made this beautiful blanket, hat, booties, and sweater set - I really love how it turned out and the soft yarn was wonderful!  I really only made one change to the pattern.  The blanket had fringe on the top and bottom, but I didn't like the raw edge look of the sides - so I added a row of single crochet along the two sides and I really liked the way it looked with that edge MUCH better!  I wish that I had made the had a looser stitch, because it ended up being a bit small for her.  :(  

I got the pattern from a book called "Dressing Up Baby" and I can't wait to try another pattern from the book!  

Baby Blankets!!!

Well I have a lot of friends having babies - and since (for once) I'm NOT having one too - I am having fun making baby blankets for them! This is the first one I finished for one of my online scrapping buddies - she's having a little boy!

The pattern is from this book - I got it at JoAnn's but if you click the image it will take you to where you can get it at Annie's Attic.  It was a fun pattern to work and the edging was unique in the way it went together.  The only problem I had with it was in the first round of the edging (the round of single crochets that is the foundation for the rest) it has you do 2 more stitches than my math tells me is necessary for the edge - if you follow the directions, you will end up with 502 sc's around the outside - however to work with the rest of the edging (and to avoid pulling out a half finished round because it didn't work out right - and your hair along with it) you need 500 - once i figured that out and made marks all over my pattern to remind myself if I make this again - It was an easy and fun pattern.  Hopefully my friends little boy enjoys it as much as I enjoyed making it.  I used Bernat Baby Coordinates Yarn - the boucle type yarn - in blue green and white.  The blanket came out so soft and snuggly!  I think it took 3 skeins..... 

I've been working on lots of stuff and even finished some of it, and maybe I'll get around to getting some of it posted here.  :) 

Baby Accessories

So this bottle cozy is another pattern that is a great baby shower gift. It can be finished in a day and takes less than a skein of yarn. I made this one for an Avent bottle - which is one of the bigger bottles. It can easily be adjusted for smaller or taller bottles, and how to adjust it is included in the pattern. This could also be modified bigger to make a gift cozy for a bottle of wine or sparkling cider (lol - I don't drink) :)

As usual, if you have any problems with the pattern or questions about it, feel free to leave a comment here.
This is a close up of the top decorative edge of the holder.

You can download a pdf of this pattern here

Or you can click on this jpeg and then right click and choose 'save image as'

Diaper Bag and Accessories

I saw this diaper bag set shortly after I found out that my younger sister was pregnant with her first baby. I wanted to spoil her, and thought that a good gift would be this diaper bag, stuffed with all the things a new mom needs. This pattern was in the March 09 issue of Crochet!

The first thing that needed to be altered was the colors. I wasn't a huge fan of the bright colors. :) I found some of the instructions hard to understand - mostly when it came to putting the thing together, so I just kinda played around with it until I liked it. I also changed how I did the lining. I made it a bit more complicated, but I think a bit nicer looking too. The pattern suggests just taking a piece of fabric and folding it in half. I actually went to the effort of making the lining fit to the shape of the diaper bag. The pattern also included a changing pad which was a great quick and easy project.


In addition to the pieces of the pattern, I made a few other pieces to go with this set that would also make GREAT quick and easy baby shower gifts. Some of them are shown here in the picture - this was my finished set that I sent off to my sister. I love how it came out - I don't know that I would go to the trouble of the full set for anyone other than my sister, but I really like the finished product.


So I thought I would type out the patterns for the other pieces I made and make them available to you. LOL - this may take a bit of time, but here is the first. The first one is a diaper and wipes carrier. A friend of mine (with more sewing ability than I will ever have...) gave me something like this for a baby shower gift. I LOVED it. I loved having something with diapers and wipes together that I could just grab and take, without having to drag the full diaper bag along if I didn't want to. This carrier will fit a travel wipes case and 4-5 diapers up to size 6. I swear, the button matches better in person.... the flash of the camera seemed to make the greens totally different!



Snag the pattern here as a jpeg - just click on it - then right click and choose 'save image as'



I don't feel comfortable giving the diaper bag pattern out - it isn't my pattern. :( (though I wish it were - lol - but I'm not that clever!) The way I got the pattern from such an old magazine is by signing up for the digital subscription to Crochet! Magazine - it's very inexpensive for a year subscription - plus you can download the back issues too - for me it was SOO worth it - that ended up being over 25 magazines for only $16 - if you want to check it out click here

This pattern is now being offered for free - you can go download it here

Baby Booties and Hat

A friend of mine signed up for the Hook and Needle club through Annie's Attic. She found herself unable to do some of the kits and let me have a few. One of the kits I got was this set of baby booties and hat. Now, the kit comes with instructions for both knit and crochet, but I don't knit well, so I chose crochet. :)

I wasn't crazy about the yarn they sent with the kit - but I don't think I would have minded it so much if the gauge had required a smaller stitch. I like my baby booties to be a tighter and firmer stitch than the patter and gauge allowed - this might have been less noticeable with different yarn, but the combination wasn't my favorite. Despite this, I think they came out cute!

I did do some adjustments to the pattern. The center of the Mary Jane booties was a bit off, so I changed the counting a bit to keep the center of the sock in line with the center of the toe. I also changed the way I did the hat. The pattern had it worked in rows as a flat piece, then had it sewn together to make the round. I worked the piece in rounds - didn't want to make more work for myself than necessary.... I think it worked just fine. I really liked the way the moccasins came out and almost wish I could make myself a pair... :)

I didn't include the moccasins in the picture because I had already given them to a friend with a new baby - I barely remembered to take this pic before I sent the rest off to another friend!

This pattern is only available through the Hook and Needle club and can't be bought on it's own. (At least not as far as I could find!)

I think that if I attempt these again, I will use different yarn, and try a double sole for more stability.