Two more baby blankets!

Two more baby blankets off to their new homes.

For the first, we don't know the gender yet (although that will change any day now!) so I made a rainbow blanket.

It's worked in a blackberry / bobble stitch as well as rainbow colours.

The blackberry stitch is really easy, you do 4 or 5 of your stitches into the same base stitch, each time leaving the final loop on the hook. Then to complete the stitch, pull the yarn through all of those loops on the hook.

Do you like my tag? It's a made by me tag to try and make my work look that little bit more professional. I used a freezer paper stencilling technique to create the design on fabric (and made a cute bag from it!). From that fabric I took a high-resolution photograph and printed it onto some shiny card. I'm really pleased how they turned out, and with the effect on the overall gift.

The second blanket is for a lovely new baby boy. I hope the colours are boyish enough without being overpowering.

This blanket is worked in half trebles all through and looks and feels lovely, I think perhaps my own baby will get one of these! See how nice and even the blanket looks without being too fancy.

It folds up pretty small, too, so will be good for the spring.

I packaged this one with a bunny bow too, but I am afraid I did not take any pictures of the parcel before it was posted.

Granny square baby blanket in blue

I have been working pretty long hours recently as there has been a lot of staffing changes in the department.

I tend to feel the need to get creative under such circumstances and have been quite busy lately with crochet baby blankets and some homemade cards.

It's hard to find the time around work and the general running of a house but I find a few stitches a night go a long way.

So here's the first one for the maternity leave of one of my friends at work a baby boy giant granny square blanket.

Worked exactly as you would a regular sized granny square - but I just kept on going!

Baby boy gifts off to their new home

The baby boy blanket has now gone to its new home.

It's based on the traditional granny square stitch, but worked in stripes of red and blue.

You can see the detail here, that it's just three treble crochets into each gap then a chain stitch (and repeat, and repeat).

I did the stripes in countable rows, so that we go from 1 red row, up to 5 on the left.

To go along with the blanket, and to try my hand at a new skill (buttonholes) I also made these baby dungarees following a great tutorial at Me Sew Crazy:

I made a plainer version than the tutorial went for, omitting the front placket, but I was still pleased with the result. They're made of nice soft denim and lined with white cotton so that the legs can be turned up for baby if needs be.

The gifts went down well at the baby shower and will hopefully be useful and used!