Granny Blanket for Baby: A Pattern, of sorts

A good friend of mine is thisclose to giving birth to her fourth child. I know a little bit about those fourth babies – how they pretty much have no choice but to adapt to the family routine, tag along to the market at a week old because everyone else needs to eat, and how virtually everything the touch has been touched/played with/worn by someone else who came before them.

I wanted to make sure that this precious babe had something handmade just for her. A sweet something that wouldn’t be outgrown quickly; no, rather, something that could be loved and used for many years. A reminder that even though her mama has been through it all before, that she is so very special and loved in a completely new way.

It’s a very simple blanket, basically a giant granny square. It’s worked in CottonEase, one of my very favorite baby yarns, in a riot of various colors.

Granny Blanket for Baby
Yarn: Lion Brand CottonEase, one ball each of the following colors: Lake, Terra Cotta, Plum, Maize, Lime and Hazelnut
Hook: I hook
Gauge: not critical, since it doesn’t need to fit

The Purl Bee has excellent info on the Basics of Crochet, so please refence that if you need some guidance.

I used Attic24′s excellent Granny Square Tutorial to get started, and then just kept going (and going, and going) until I had worked through almost 5 full repeats of my colors. The colors were worked in the following order, one round each: Hazelnut, TerraCotta, Lime, Plum, Maize, Lake. Work 4 full repeats of the color sequence, and then work the 5th repeat up to the Maize. With the Maize, I worked a single crochet in each stitch around, to give a nice base for the edge on the last round. The last round is worked as follows (with Lake):*[hcd, dc, hdc] in next stitch, skip 1 stitch, sc in next stitch, skip 1 stitch; repeat from * to end of round.

It’s certainly an easy project, reminding me once again that simple can be immensely satisfying.