Whew!

[Nova55]

Well, I was definitely doing a bit of nail-biting on this baby shower present, but I managed to get it done just in time. I sent it to my sister so she could bring it to the party. It went out in the mail last Wednesday and was received Friday - and the shower was yesterday! (Me doing my happy dance!)


Ta Da! The "Love & Kisses" Baby Blanket

I've worked on this Hearts ZigZag stitch baby blanket for the last three weeks or so. I love the end result, and now that I've finally finished it, I'll know better what to do in the future if I should ever decide to make this again - give myself plenty of time (considering this stitch is made up mainly of single crochets) and to go up at least one hook size to save my poor arthritic thumbs! I also included one of the Cuddly-Baby amigurumi dolls by Lilleliis that I made a while back.



For a reward (and to give my still aching thumbs a MUCH needed rest), I bought a present for myself of a butterfly cross stitch kit from Rachel Nichols of LeiaPatterns. She has a delightful assortment of cross stitch items, and you can just buy the pattern or the kit (with or without a hoop). She also carries adorable needle minders, wooden pendant blanks to cross stitch, and 20% off your first purchase for joining her email club.


Rainbow Cross Stitch Butterfly by LeiaPatterns.


I have already started the butterfly, and even though I haven't done any counted cross stitch in a long time, it seems like it's going ok. The colors are beautiful and vibrant, and I really can't wait to finish. Best of all, my thumbs aren't complaining!

As always, happy crocheting!

[Jean Marie]

Hi Nova,
That's a big blanket. The blanket had a lot of color changing. It's a pretty blanket.The amigurumi baby doll is cute.

[spoula]

Hi Nova, Loved the blanket and all the colors. It is a unique design for a baby. Like the dolly too.

Spoula

[MeToo!]

You don't cut the thread every time you change colour, do you?

[Nova55]

You don't cut the thread every time you change colour, do you?

Yes, I did. Each color, including white, is two rows. The two ends of the blanket end up being a zigzag pattern; the one edge works up very neatly, and the other edge had all the ends. If you are very good you can probably leave a long tail and crochet over it with the next row. I was concerned about the white not quite hiding the color with this method.

Since this is a baby blanket and possibly will be washed often, I chose to take the beginning tail and ending tail of a color, weave them through so they met, tie a knot and then sew the knot with matching thread. Then I sewed the knot to hide it in-between stitches. I hope this is strong enough to hold through washings! I ended up with a very neat edge using this method, although it is rather time consuming.

[MeToo!]

Yes, it does sound time consuming but the result will be worth it.