Yarn for a baby blanket?
Saturday, August 28th, 2010 at
3:36 am
I want to knit my friend a really nice baby blanket. She is just out of highschool and is 11 weeks along. I know that it is going to be really hard on her financially so i want to make one that is really good quality and that’ll last (at least) through the baby years. And also is there any really good patterns i should use? Thank you soo much!!
Filed under: Baby Clothes
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My mom made some wonderful blankets for my son – they are all simple stripe designs – different thicknesses that repeat. There is special soft yarn out there designed for baby blankets – but anything super soft will do. Try to avoid the clumpy/textured or chenille wools as they won’t wash up as nice. There is also yarn that changes color as it goes along, and the pattern is shown on the wrapper of the yarn itself.
Maybe try to make her two blankets – one with soft baby colors, and one with darker colors that is larger and can easily be used when the child is a toddler. My son LOVES his blankets, but the darker one is his favorite now that he’s older, and it’s easier to wash up because it’s not so light and easily stained.
If you’re feeling very ambitious and know how to sew, large swaddling blankets and burp blankets are easy to make out of flannel and all you do is hem the edges.
go to a arts and crafts store they have baby blanket yard and they have books there with patters for cute baby blankets.. good luck..
I guarantee that anything made with acrylic will last and last and last. Just be sure to leave long enough ends to weave in. Short ends come out. Depending on whether you knit or crochet will decide which yarns you might want to use. I REALLY like TLC Heathers for knitting. It’s ok for crochet, but tends to be a little stretchy (soft yarns are like this). Red Heart is generally pretty good, holds up well, but not as soft as some other yarns. It does wash and dry in the machine pretty good – which is a key feature for baby items.
As to patterns, depends on which craft and what you are trying to get and whether you want to use baby yarn or worsted weight. I’ve made one afghan with baby yarn (I knitted it in traditional washcloth style) and I just don’t like working with baby yarn. Takes forever. I am currently crocheting a variant on granny squares by including bobbles here and there. For patterns, just google or bing (or yahoo) baby blanket pattern followed by either crochet or knit. Lots of patterns will come up.
As a mom, I prefer natural fabrics, merino wool, alpaca, organic cotton ….. they may not "wear " as well as synthetics but I donated every single acrylic/polyester sweater/blanket etc that we received as gifts. I also chucked out all the fleece sleepers etc. They are hot, sweaty and don’t breathe at all…. babies are most comfortable when surrounded by natural materials- not fake ones. Just a thought anyway
I made my first blanket out of organic cotton and it was super soft/fluffy. http://www.blueskyalpacas.com/yarns.php I used their organic cotton for it.
this pattern looks really cute …
http://www.blueskyalpacas.com/pattern_detail.php?patterns_ID=135