Baby blanket

miamee

Hey all,
We have 2 nieces/nephews due to arrive in the family later this year and I would love to be able to give a gift that I made for them myself. I can (barely) knit but would love to knit, crochet, quilt a baby blanket (well, two).

What craft would be easiest for a newb to pick up or is it a case of trying them all to see which one I suck at least? :pac:

dori_dormer

I've heard crochet is very easy to pick up. A lovely idea I've seen is a rainbow blanket. You crochet/knit one line a day. The colour is based on the temperature of the day. But you give this one on their 1st birthday! Their are probably lots of ideas on pinterest

Broken Hearted Road

I'm not too sure if a crochet blanket will be suitable due to the holes in between stitches and little fingers could get caught.

A baby blanket I found recently and liked was a knit blanket. It was made from the garter knit stitch and it was stripy. And made from cotton. I thought it was lovely and it could easily be reproduced. Knitting is very easy.

If it was me due to work on a project of a blanket, I would leave out stripes. I worked on a stripe project last year, there were so many tails to weave in. I'm also a big fan of merino wool. It's so soft and it really hugs you. If you were to Google merino wool for babies or any combination of words merino wool baby blanket, I remember reading something online about merino wool being good for babies. I would go for a DJ weight yarn in a neutral colour.

If you decide to pick knitting for your project, you will need circular needles I reckon and they are very easy to pink up in yarn shops. Any good yarn shop should have them. If you want to browse online for ideas, thewoolshop.ie is a good one. There are other shops too. Circular needles have two relatively short needles and attached together with a wire or a tube. These can come in many different lengths. The needles themselves can come in many different materials like metal, wood. The reason for circular needles for a blanket is because they will accommodate hundreds of stitches. Straight knitting needles may not be long enough for a blanket.

Broken Hearted Road

Broken Hearted Road wrote: »

I'm not too sure if a crochet blanket will be suitable due to the holes in between stitches and little fingers could get caught.

A baby blanket I found recently and liked was a knit blanket. It was made from the garter knit stitch and it was stripy. And made from cotton. I thought it was lovely and it could easily be reproduced. Knitting is very easy.

If it was me due to work on a project of a blanket, I would leave out stripes. I worked on a stripe project last year, there were so many tails to weave in. I'm also a big fan of merino wool. It's so soft and it really hugs you. If you were to Google merino wool for babies or any combination of words merino wool baby blanket, I remember reading something online about merino wool being good for babies. I would go for a DJ weight yarn in a neutral colour.

If you decide to pick knitting for your project, you will need circular needles I reckon and they are very easy to pink up in yarn shops. Any good yarn shop should have them. If you want to browse online for ideas, thewoolshop.ie is a good one. There are other shops too. Circular needles have two relatively short needles and attached together with a wire or a tube. These can come in many different lengths. The needles themselves can come in many different materials like metal, wood. The reason for circular needles for a blanket is because they will accommodate hundreds of stitches. Straight knitting needles may not be long enough for a blanket.

I tried to edit this but I couldn't.

I meant to write - DK weight yarn.

Yarns come in different weights like there is fingering, 4 ply weight yarns. These are very thin. DK weight yarn is middle if the road in weight. There is Aran yarn and chunky yarn and these would be thicker and heavier in weights.

If you do decide to go for a merino wool for your project, I would go for a superwash merino yarn. It will be easier for washing. Superwash yarns can generally be washed in the machine on a wool cycle at 30°c.

Broken Hearted Road

Raverly is a knit and crochet community. There sections with patterns and forums and it's a great tool.

I'm just after finding this blanket here as an example.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/simple-baby-blanket-4

It's knit using DK weight merino wool and I think it's beautiful.

PhoenixParker

Not a crocheter but don't be worried about holes in baby blankets. Babies blankets are meant to have holes these days to prevent suffocation. They're called cellular blankets and if you google it there are lots of crochet patterns for them.

janmaree

Broken Hearted Road wrote: »

Raverly is a knit and crochet community. There sections with patterns and forums and it's a great tool.

I'm just after finding this blanket here as an example.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/simple-baby-blanket-4

It's knit using DK weight merino wool and I think it's beautiful.

I agree with you, it's a lovely blanket and the pattern is free, a very good place for a beginner to start. The garter stitch seems to really be making a comeback, not that it went anywhere but it's what most of us learned to do first. I've seen some beautiful adult sweaters and jackets in it lately and they're stunning.

jace6

There are lots of helpful videos available on Youtube to get you started on crochet.
JaydaInStitches, Bella Coco, Mikey and the crochet crowd.
Step by step tutorials on baby blankets etc.

miamee

jace6 wrote: »

There are lots of helpful videos available on Youtube to get you started on crochet.
JaydaInStitches, Bella Coco, Mikey and the crochet crowd.
Step by step tutorials on baby blankets etc.

Thanks so much, that's very helpful. They look perfect