Baby Blankets

In my profile, at right, I mention that I love to crochet. I do. As I remember it my grandma taught me when I was 5. Probably, just like with the sewing, I was older, but that is how I remember it. I wonder if I attach milestone events to that age because turning 5 is such a big deal. I'm being reminded of this daily by Valerie, who is 5. She wants everything "5", just like her age, even the size of new clothes, though she is closer to a size 6 now (but that is another story).

But I digress. My mom, who also loves to crochet, asked my grandma to teach me because I'm right-handed and my mom is a lefty. She has a funky way of holding the hook and the yarn, while my grandma crochets like a normal right-handed person. I don't actually remember learning to crochet, but I remember liking it a lot. I crocheted on and off throughout my childhood, inspired by my mom who often made little sweaters or blankets as gifts for baby showers she went to. And I did make a crochet key chain, very 70s, and entered it in the County Fair. I even won a ribbon for it. I remember just making layers of chain upon chain willy-nilly, adding new colors and then fringe. It was mostly red and olive green, with some rust, I think. I probably still have it in a box somewhere (that is another story, too).

But I digress again. I think it was the very week I graduated from college, right before I moved in with my soon-to-be fiance', Tom, that I went to Crown Books and bought The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Book of NeedleCrafts. I had just received my B.A. in Art Studio, emphasis in oil painting, and there I was buying this Home Ec. kind of book. I just needed to do something different, something creative without the pressure of assignments and critiques and without the smell of turpentine. I started crocheting new pattern stitches and granny squares right away and I don't think there have been more than a few days since then that I haven't had a crochet project in a bag on the table next to the couch. I even have one there now, a little sweater for Andrew that I hope to finish before he outgrows it (yet another story).

Digressing again. (This post is titled Baby Blankets for a reason.) Some of the blogs I like to look at are crafty spaces where the authors post about the handmade things they have created. So, in that vein, I wanted to post photos of the baby blankets I made for Valerie and Andrew. ( And then I got all carried away and started writing part of my crochet life story.)

Well, here are the photos. For each I used Patons Grace cotton yarn in Snow.

Valerie's blanket, above, is the Sweet Dreams Afghan from this book.

Andrew's blanket, above, is the afghan from the White Set in this book.

I finished Valerie's blanket a few months before she was born. I finished Andrew's a year and a few days after he was born. But, there they are. Lovely, thick, soft blankets that are still plenty big enough for Valerie to let her imagination run wild with, and for Andrew to nap under. It is my hope that they will get passed on to my grandkids, someday.

Hmmm, I think I'll go crochet!