Farm yard baby blanket

I love making things for babies because they look so tiny and cute and there is less chance of the project sitting unfinished forever.

I could not make up my mind on whether to start with a blanket or a cardigan, so I decided to look up Mary Maxim for all patterns baby. Voila! There was this gorgeous tapestry crocheted blanket with cute animals. What baby doesn't like animals?!! I ordered the pattern and supplies immediately and waited impatiently for the shipping.

Don't you just love the convenience of buying supplies for a project right from your home and having them delivered to your doorstep? I fell in love with Mary Maxim when I saw one of their advertisements on Crochet Today and subsequently made this Crocheted Cardigan using their pattern. Their patterns are easy to read and well-written and even provide tips to avoid potential pitfalls and that's always handy for newbies like me!

When I opened the box, it was an explosion of colour ( drool here ) and I got started right away. They do not seem to be selling this any more on the site, so I am glad I ordered it in time.

I know what you are thinking, post a picture already! So here's a picture of the completed blanket.

I am very happy with how this turned out and am really tempted to use it like a lap blanket myself until the baby comes! Is that mean of me? Oh well, the baby may beat me to it anyway since it's summer here in Vegas and certainly too hot for a blanket.

After much deliberation on whether or not to block the blanket, I decided to finally go ahead and do it. The experts do not recommend something without a reason, right? I wet blocked the blanket and it took 2 days for it to dry completely despite the summer heat in Vegas! But now my blanket looks square and nice, so it was well worth the effort. Here's another picture of the blanket I took when I was blocking it.

I am adding a backing of soft green minky to this blanket so the baby can spend many cozy nights under this (Oh well, the real reason is that I wasn't very diligent about joining new balls of the same colour yarn multiple times in a row, so there was a lot of yarn running criss cross! I was sure little feet and hands would either get caught in them or pull on them ruining the blanket. Hee hee )! I'll add pictures of the backing soon.

This being my first blanket and my first tapestry crochet project, there were quite a few challenges and lessons learnt, but I am so glad I stuck to it and finished it.

Lessons learnt

1. Do not be lazy to wind multiple small bobbins of the same colour. The finished project will look much cleaner and I probably would not have taken the trouble to add the backing if the blanket was not a mess on the wrong side. It could even be used as a reversible blanket! If you have to drag yarn across, make sure it is a little loose and then crochet over it the next row so it gets weaved in. Here's a picture that shows what it looks like when it is not weaved in.
   
   
2. Make the bobbins of yarn small, and place each one in a separate plastic bag (easiest method I found without having to buy anything fancy) so that the yarn doesn't get entangled. I did not do this until I was well into the project and it was a relief when I finally did!
3. When you join new yarn, weave the previous colour and the new one as you crochet further. If it is not possible to weave the previous colour because it is too dark and the new colour is light, make sure you do it in the next row. If you decide to cut the yarn, make sure you cut out a strand of yarn long enough to be manouvered with a tapestry needle.

Be sure to let me know how you like this post through your comments!