Monday, September 17, 2007

... My Latest Creations

Avery Judd's
Baby Blanket




Tre Swingle's
Baby Blanket



Bekah's
Placemats

12 comments:

Jennifer said...

I love your projects- beautiful job! I need you to teach me how to make a baby blanket so I can make one for my cousin's baby girl. Thanks for letting us use your amazing house.

Love,

JL

Bekah said...

Oh YAY! I haven't even seen my placemats for real yet, but I LOVE THEM! Michelle, you are the bomb! haha!

Anonymous said...

The dark green baby blanket is beautiful!

Billie said...

Great job shel. I love everything. Your blankets look so cozy.

Sarah said...

Really pretty. I want to cuddle up in one of those blankets, they look so soft. I think I need to learn how to knit and sew!

Ashleigh said...

Beautiful, Michelle! :-)

Bethany said...

Love them all. What patterns and yarn did you use for your blankets.

Kate Van said...

Wow- everything is so lovely. Did you have a pattern for the placemats? The fabric for those is sweet.

AmyB said...

Love 'em!!! Bek's placemats look great. I think my favorite is the hall runner/baby burrito wrap ;-). Seriously though, everything looks great! Love the colors! Can't wait to see Bek's mats in person!

Michelle said...

haha Amy. Yeah, confession. The yarn I used for Tre's blanket was more bulky than the pattern called for and I was bad and didn't test my gauge. The blanket looked more like you could roll Tre up like a burrito, it's so short and wide. It probably doesn't help that at almost 2 months old he's still only 4 lbs (he was a super preemie). hehe.

Pattern: I used the same pattern for both blankets. It's supposed to take 8 hours but for me it's more like 8 weeks. It's simple though. I can just tell you...

You cast on 75 then alternate purl, knit for 8 rows.
Then you alternate purl, knit for 5 stitches then you purl until you are 5 away from the end when you alternate purl, knit again.
Next row you do the same thing but for the bulk of the row instead of purl, you'd knit.
Repeat until it's as long as you like then alternate purl, knit the entire row for the final 8 rows.
What this does is give you an edge around the blanket and has the middle of one side purl and the middle of the other side knit. It's pretty. Oh, and I like to use two yarns at the same time to make it more bulky & soft. You can never have too much of that!

Yarn: I didn't keep the wrapper for Tre's so I'm not sure which brand it is but I bought it at Michaels and it's a "baby yarn". For Avery's I used Lion Brand Homespun which is now officially my yarn of choice. They have such vibrant, fun colors and they feel soft and indulgent.

Placemats: The pattern and material are both Amy Butler. Also officially my favorite. If you want to see what the placemats look like in full, you can look for my old crafts post... I made these for myself (different material) a few months back. This time they turned out much better. I ordered the fabric through my favorite sewing website -- Purlsoho.com. The pattern came from the book In Stitches by Amy Butler. I haven't made anything else out of there, this is only the second thing I've ever sewed, but they seem pretty simple.

anne said...

beautiful! Love them all! :)

Sarah said...

I was going to ask where you get your fabric, the patterns are gorgeous. I'm definitely going to check out that site.