FO with PICTURES!!

God, I feel so *together* right now. Kids are all sleeping, dishes are done (note to self, run the dishwasher or there won't be bowls for breakfast tomorrow) and I FINISHED SOMETHING!!! I'm going to go ahead and blog about it as the person it's for just had a baby (I hope! I haven't heard any details yet...) and I sort of doubt she'll be checking in. If she does, well, surprise, honey! :)

This actually was a fairly quick project, as I obviously didn't make the whole thing. This is a fleece baby blanket with a crocheted edging. The blanket is approximately 30" x 36". I then used my slip stitch blade for my rotary cutter and perforated the edges. The edging is done using a C/2 size Boye Aluminum crochet hook, and Coats and Coats crochet thread (100% mrotary cutterercerized cotton) in size 3, probably about 1.3 balls. I used Pattern #3 from Baby's Choice Crochet Edgings for Fleece. It's sort of hard to see the detail of the edging in the black thread, but here's a picture:
I thought the angles of the edging would look sort of funky with the circles of the pattern. It's not your traditional baby blanket, I suppose, but this friend is not your traditional sort of mom. :) I hope she likes it. And if you're wondering why I'm sending a fleece blanket to a baby in Los Angeles, well, I don't want to hear it. I fell in love with the fleece and immediately thought of this friend and wanted to do something for her! My plan is to make a second blanket for Project Linus.

This was definitely an easier project. The one new skill I learned was crocheting through the back loop. I'm not sure of the point of it, but that's what the pattern called for, so that, gosh darn it, is what I did. The whole edging is only 4 rows (including the foundation row), and I'd say the whole thing took....10 hours maybe? Maybe not even that. The two middle rows took the longest, because I did somewhere on the order of 125 single crochets, and about 1000 double crochets.

I think the heavier crochet thread works really well for this edging. I might try a light yarn for the next one (that baby's not born yet, but coming SOON, I hope!), but I do like the thread. And I very much like that too,it's cotton, so no acrylic frying. I won't, however, use an aluminum hook for the next one. They're fine at a heavier weight, but this is a smaller size and I don't think the aluminum could withstand the vigor with which I wielded it, because the thing actually BENT. It's totally still usable but I don't think it's supposed to do that, you know?

I'm excited about this also as a possibility for service work. I love the idea of making one blanket for a friend (there are a gazillion babies being born among my circle of friends this year) and making the other half as a donation. I do think I like the 30x30 blanket size a bit better than this one, but I'm not sure what to do with the extra fleece I cut off. Sew it together into random scarves? Must ponder. I need to send an email to the local Project Linus coordinator and see if they need donations.