A few years ago, temperature blankets started trending on crochet social media. I loved the idea of using crochet to track something, however, I just didn’t see myself tracking temperatures.
Well, one day, inspiration hit as it tends to do at the most unlikely of times. After searching on the internet and not seeing anything similar, I started planning my idea out. And TA-DA!!!
Introducing the HOW I GREW BLANKET
The concept of this blanket is to track the growth of a child from birth to adulthood (or as many years as you choose). In my former life as a Registered Dietitian, I used hundreds of charts to track the growth of my paediatric clients, and of course, tracked the growth of both of my children. I needed to make a blanket for my son (since everyone else had a handmade one by me). So creativity struck and I merged them together!
Each stripe of the blanket represents a year of growth, starting with his birth length. Once I had all his measurements, then I just decided on the stitch and size of blanket I wanted to make. My son had already picked out the colours that he wanted.
My finished size is 65″ wide x 75″ long, and generously covers his queen sized bed.
How I made it:
1. Gathered all his growth measurements from charts, and markings on the back of the bathroom door.
2. Yarn: I used a combination of Red Heart Super Saver, Bernat Super Value, and Phentax Worsted. I purchased 2 balls of each of the 4 colours and just had partial balls left.
3. Stitch: I used a waffle stitch. There are many variations of waffle stitches, I chose one with a wider square.
4. I started off with a chainless foundation double crochet. This allowed me to get the width I wanted. I placed it on his bed when I thought it was wide enough and added more stitches until it gave me the drape I wanted. As I was working with a multiple of 4 for my stitch repeat, I did have to just fine tune the first row by a couple of stitches. This is so easy to do when using the chainless foundation. This is my go to method for starting projects whenever I can.
5. Start your stripes! The first section is the longest as typical birth lengths range from 18-22″. Get out that measuring tape and keep it handy as you go. I would suggest measuring from at least 3 evenly spaced spots and averaging them out. I put in stitch markers so I consistently measured from the same places.
6. Changing colours: Decide, based on your chosen stitch, which row you are going to change colours on. My pattern was a 2 row repeat, so I always changed colours on the same row.
This idea is very adaptable to many stitch patterns – anything that can be worked up in stripes.
Of course, now my daughter wants one for herself. Her’s is being based on a ripple design. More specifics will come in a future post.
May all your yarn be knot-free,
Sally
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