Knitting: Baby Blanket for a Darling One

My bestie in the UK had a baby! YAY! I knitted him a baby blanket! YAY!!!

I'm very happy with it, but it's more of a pram accessory type blanket than roll up your baby like a kebab type blanket. I found the pattern on Ravelry, and it was simple to follow (I'm not a big knitter these days, I do like it, but I can't concentrate on anything other than purl or knit!) but looks slightly tricky with those diagonal stripes. It took a long while though, maybe 2 months? I don't sit and watch tv shows as much as I used to! But the sweetest thing is when you can give your child a crochet hook and a scrap of wool and we both 'knit' together for a bit.

The wool came from a small wool shop in Wuyi Lu in Shanghai's Changning District, it's near Dingxi Lu, and about a 15 minute walk from our house. The women were so sweet and helpful, I didn't speak much Chinese when I bought it but I wanted green and tried to say 'lu' because I know how to order green tea! It worked, and it's a little minty fresh green than the grassy green I'd hoped for. But looks lovely with the cream.

Now that we live in Shanghai, I also started investigating about visiting her because wouldn't you think that flights would be cheaper since we're a little bit closer to England than Australia? Nup. It's peak time to fly (even though I was looking at the end of the holidays) and my little budgeting dream got squashed as our insurance bill came in and other ridiculous "adults who live abroad" things that cost money. So instead, this little baby blanket has arrived safely by China Post!

I REALLY want to visit the UK in the next year though, so fingers crossed xoxo

Hope you're having a lovely weekend! I'm out of whack with my blogging at the moment, it's been so hot and now the weekend is actually a little stormy, we think another typhoon is around! What a summer!

Voila: A Ripple Crochet Baby Blanket

My dear friend had a baby girl in July, and I'd been wanting to try a special crochet style, the ripple effect! It wasn't hard after about 3 rows, but it took a lot of concentration for a while to get the 'peaks' and 'valleys' as my pattern called it. My Mum's friend Chris knows a lot about the old crochet, and gave my baby 2 darling blankets for when he was born. One was a ripple blanket so she shared her pattern! 

I was a bit gung ho at first, because you count out your stitches in the first row, making sure you'll have enough ripples (but don't they look a bit chevron-esque?) and I was worried the blanket wasn't wide enough (so counted out over 200 stitches I think, what a headache!)... so I ended up making it too wide, so didn't make it as long... so the ripples are vertical instead.

But makes it kinda sweet and different looking. Plus if the new baby is swaddled, she'll be rippled across horizontal anyways... win win!

YAY!

DIY Rainbow Crossing Baby Blanket

Look what I finished finally!? My first knitted baby blanket for my boy!

We absolutely love it, of course, it keeps him lovely and warm! And it's gorgeous yarn from Morris & Sons in the city, a gorgeous shop with super gorgeous staff! And the pattern is from Purl Bee's Super Easy Baby Blanket, and yup, it was super easy... but just needed the time to do it! It's my first time knitting with the circular needles, and they are just GREAT! I've started a cowl already on them too (that I hope to get finished by this winter! One month left to go! Fingers crossed!) as they are just super easy to use once you get your head around them (and not twist the first few rows!).

I first picked up the wool in August last year before I left work, and then probably started it last August, early September and didn't get far until February this year, and I only started the layer of yellow in April... why did it take til June to finish it?! Oh time flies!

Here's the blankie in SITU:

And now since DIY Rainbowing happened earlier this year, I'm calling this blankie my own DIY Rainbow Crossing for all the gays! YAY! Needs more purple to be a fully flown rainbow, but close enough I reckon!

Love to you guys! Hope it's a Happy Friday for you!

xoxo

Another baby blanket

Here's my second crochet blanket for the human child!

Grey black, this time (you know I'm loving grey/charcoals to BITS) and it's a massive Granny Square. I think it was at least 4 balls of charcoal and 1 1/2 of red... I thought I'd get a lot further, but it's around a metre and a bit wide... So I'd really love to make a larger one for the couch!

This one will be a perfect one for the car, or for the pram, I guess... when I get around to actually looking at things like prams! Husbie was very sweet this week, his family really wanted to buy us something like a cot or change table (but I've got hand me downs sorted out, and can't justify big pieces of furniture, as we don't have the space) so he talked them around to a baby carrier, one that we both can wear. I'm glad one of us is planning ahead for the bigger picture stuff!

Hope you're enjoying the weekend!

The Lego Blanket

I finished this a while back, but doing the finishing touches and washing it carefully took five years, and finally a pretty gorgeous day for me to spread it out on the lawn!

They're blocks of crocheted granny squares (the easiest kind of crochet, in my opinion) that I started in January this year around the time I found out we were expecting... I'd bought the wool on special, and only needed a revisit to Spotlight for the grey joinery colour, and luckily it was the kind they have all the time...

I'm really into grey and charcoal with orange or red... so the yellow and aqua has become an alternative colouring for me now... it's very sweet. And reminds me of lego.

It probably took 3 months of crocheting the granny squares (on the bus, watching Boardwalk Empire) and another month of edging them with the charcoal wool, and then joining... I love thinking that granny square blankets will be quick, but they never are for me! (Just found this post in May, saying I'm finishing it up)

But they're gorgeous when they finally get done!

The connecting stitch I used was just a slip stitch, instead of a single crochet, which made the backing a little thicker and raised... this used to make me annoyed, that it didn't sit flat, but the other way of joining them, is just annoying to do... and this way it's really quick to join... Using a needle will take me forever. If you crochet, what's your best way to join granny squares?

And, as I forgot that I had a challenge in place this year, this is 6/100 for my 100 Things Challenge... and hopefully I'll get a few more photos up of what I've made. I have made a few baby hats, and of course given them away without photographing them. Oh well...

Happy Monday and hope you have a great week!

xoxo

Voila: "The Breaking Wire" Crochet Blanket

Last summer, in the January sales, I bought some wool. LOTS of wool, and it took a year and LOTS of TV shows to watch, but 90 Granny Squares later here's my darling crochet blanket!

I'd seen something (I think on the Frankie Spaces/Homes magazine?) massive like this, and I became a little fixated on challenging myself to make something so large. I'd taught myself how to crochet maybe 3 or 4 summers ago, but have only made smaller baby blankets leftover from my scraps of wool (after my urban graffiti adventures in Newtown!)... the best place to learn crochet? Youtube clips of wonderful people showing you how they do it!

The colours look so great together and I'm really happy with the haphazard layout... originally I'd shuffled them so there was more order to them, but this makes it a little more SHABBY CHIC right? LOL. The Morris and Sons shop where I bought the wool (it's in Melbs CBD in Collins Street) were just AMAZINGLY helpful... they weighed out how much wool I'd need per square and helped calculate the black edging. Truly the BEST customer service! Overall this cost me a hefty $300 approx and hours and hours of watching several series of Breaking Bad and The Wire. They're tv shows with too much suspense for me, so multitasking is the best distraction when the going gets tough!

For the $300 though; this blanket will last for a very long time... the wool was a better quality and initially as always the thrifty queen, I was hovering around the bargain bin... but the shop assistant reminded me that to go to all this effort, to crochet 90 granny squares, and crochet it all together (I've heard this is the long way to do it too. DAMN) with lesser quality wool, would mean it just wouldn't last a few washes. And now that it's all made up, I'm so glad I spent a bit more on the wool.

In the summer, it'll live on our 'bright' couch and in winter on our bed like above.

Since the house was looking so swish, I took a few photos for you as well! I'll post them for you soon! We're finding the right spots for everything now, which is great and loving being here in summer so to sit outside on the lawn. Just magic in the warmer evenings! xoxo