baby

, ,

Jericho Knit Baby Blanket

, ,

My four year old niece and 6-month nephew will staying with me and the fella for a week or so starting Friday. I have been stocking up on ideas to make me the best stay at home aunt ever. I have enough to last through day 2. After that: television. Aunts can get away with that. I'd designed this blanket to use up some yarn I've had laying around since 2009, and decided to name it after the impending invasion. Seven days running around a city and then shouting loud enough to knock down city walls? That sounds about right.

This photo was taken on a peaceful morning. So much for those.
This photo was taken on a peaceful morning. So much for those.

This blanket uses the same start in the center and work your way out construction as my lotus and stripe seven baby blankets. I love this construction because you it's very forgiving if you're off gauge or are unsure about the amount of yarn you have. You just start knitting and bind off when you start running low or are sick of working on it.

Just enough to keep it interesting.
Just enough to keep it interesting.

This blanket knit up SUPER fast. Size 11's, chunky yarn, and almost all knit stitches. I think it took me all of a week from start to finish.

Those lines of "walls" remind me just a bit of the noise emanating from a temperamental 4 year old.
Those lines of "walls" remind me just a bit of the noise emanating from a temperamental 4 year old.

I'm experimenting with new software, so I actually put this into a PDF. Lucky you!

Download Jericho Baby Blanket Knitting Pattern

, ,

Baby Season

, ,
baby-boy-closeup1.jpg

I'm waiting for science to prove that children, like tomatoes and trashy television, come in seasons. Friends, family and coworkers are bringing home bundles of joy left and right, and here is another welcome quilt.  Despite doing more quilting in the last few months than in the prior year, this officially puts the baby gift stockpile at one quilt. It's possible my friends like each other too much. I tend to be more attracted to color and texture, rather than than cute prints. If anyone asks, it's because I'm too classy for the cutesy prints, and not at all because my brain shorts out when I look at a pile of combating colors, shapes, and sizes.

But Ed Emberley's "Happy Drawings" collection is too ridiculously little boy to pass on. Alligators, elephants and dragons. Random, sure, but so are boys. The patterns cover a range of sizes and tones, so putting together a design that would let each fabric sing was a bit of a challenge.

The end result is below. I'm pretty pumped. I think it's nephew-worthy.

Boy baby quilt

You will notice that this quilt is hopelessly nameless. A girl only has so much creativity, people. "Sapphires and Rubies" depleted my already parched well. So the good people over at FaveQuilts.com are having a little fun with it, and asking their readers to come up with name in their next newsletter. Have a clever suggestion to add? Leave it in the comments below.  

Edit 7/23: We have a name! Thanks everyone for voting.

Off to the Zoo Baby Quilt

Finished size: 32"x54"

Supplies

  • 1 yard sashing fabric
  • Fat Quarters or scrap fabrics. At minimum, you need five fat quarters, but you can use as many fabrics as you would like.
  • Backing fabric (I pieced my back from scraps)
  • 3/8 yard binding fabric
  • Batting and other quilting notions

Cut

From the fat quarters or scrap fabric, cut the following:

  • 12 - 6.5" squares
  • 12 - 2.5"x6.5"
  • 24 - 3.5"x6.5"
  • 12 - 2.5"x3.5"
  • 12 - 2.5" squares

From the sashing fabric, cut the following:

  • 67 - 1.5"x6.5"
  • 12 - 1.5"x2.5"
  • 8 - 1.5"x49" (if you are using 40" width fabric, you will need to piece these)

Piece Blocks

Sew 12 of each block type. You should have one left over when you layout the quilt top.

Block A

  • Sew the 1.5"x6.5" sashing to the top of the 6.5" squares
  • Press seam toward darker fabric

Block B

For blocks B and C, you can change the orientation of the rectangles in order to accommodate the pattern direction and to add more variety.

block B

  •  Sew the 1.5"x6.5" sashing to the side of the 3.5"x6.5" rectangle
  • Press seam toward darker fabric
  • Sew the 2.5"x6.5" rectangle to the other side of the sashing
  • Sew the 1.5"x6.5" sashing to the side of the block

Block C

Block C

  •  Sew the 1.5"x6.5" sashing to the side of the 3.5"x6.5" rectangle
  • Press seam toward darker fabric
  • Sew the 1.5"x2.5" sashing to the bottom of the 2.5"x3.5" rectangle
  • Press seam to the darker fabric
  • Sew the 2.5" square to the other side of the sashing on the 2.5"x3.5"
  • Press seam toward darker fabric
  • Sew this piece to the other side of the sashing on the 3.5"x6.5" piece
  • Press seam toward darker fabric
  • Sew the 1.5"x6.5" sashing to the side of the block

Piecing Top

Overview of boy's quilt

Randomly layout the finished blocks into 5 rows by 7 columns.

Sew the blocks in each column together so you have five columns of seven blocks.

Press the seams.

Sew sashing fabric to the side of each column, and sew the columns together.

Sew sashing to the final side.

Press all seams and sew sashing across the bottom.

Press seams.

Finishing

Back, bind and quilt your baby quilt.

I pieced the back, using the fabric provided in the packet of fat quarters which was intended as a draft dodger. I totally planned to have beige on either side of the green - I didn't just make a horrible measuring mistake that I had to cover up. I would never make such an rookie mistake.

Back of the fat quarter quilt

, ,

Lotus Baby Blanket Pattern

, ,
Lotus Baby Blanket Pattern

I need to get rid of yarn. 

A lot of it is left overs from other projects - too much to toss, too little to make anything - or stuff that has been given to me. Nice and thank you, but not what I'd have bought. Also, yarn follows the same rules as Chinese food - left overs are either consumed in the first two days, or you lose the ability to see them. The get pushed further and further to the back, until in a flurry of Spring cleaning you come across a container you're afraid to open.

It's making me crazy. I feel guilty buying new stuff I'd actually use because I have approximately 8 sheep in my closet. And it just sits there. Staring.

So I made a blanket to cover my shame.

[img:1]

This yarn was a lovely cotton/alpaca blend that someone cruely dyed the color of blanched salmon. I believe my mother had a sweater in exactly this color somewhere around 1993. I used it to make a baby blanket. Being pre-verbal, babies' opinions on color pallet are easily ignored. But to appease their now-talking parents, I plan to dye it 'flamingo'.

[img:2]

This blanket is a pretty quick knit. All the confusing stuff is right at the beginning, so starting over/frogging (not that anyone ever does...) isn't too painful. The petal pattern is easily memorized and doesn't take much concentration after you figure it out. This probably isn't the best pattern for your first lace project, it would make a great second one. 

Lotus Knit Baby Blanket Pattern

Size

32"x32"

Gauge

18 sts x 20 rows = 4 inches in stockinette

Materials

  • 300 grams (3 skeins) Cascasde 220 wool or similar worsted weight yarn (100 grams, 220 yards) 
  • Size 8 (5 mm) 32” circular needles
  • Size 8 (5mm) 60" circular needles
  • Darning needle

Abbreviations

  • K – Knit
  • P – Purl
  • K2tog – knit 2 together
  • Ssk – Slip 2 stitches knitwise and k2tog
  • Sl, k2tog, psso – Slip on st to the right needle, k2tog, pass slip stitch over
  • K1f&b - Knit 1 in the front and back of the stitch
  • K tbl - Knit through back loop
  • YO - Yarn over
  • PM - Place marker

Notes

Throughout pattern, slip markers as you come to them.

Switch to longer circulars when needed.

This blanket is knit using the magic loop method.

Directions

Cast on 8 sts using the disappearing loop method. Pull the cable through so you have 4 sts on each needle.

Center Flower

Work the following pattern four times on each round.Place a marker between each repeat.

  1. K, 2yo, k
  2. K2, p, k
  3. K2, yo, k2
  4. K2, k1f&b, k2
  5. K2, yo, k2, yo, k2
  6. Knit
  7. K2, yo, k4, yo, k2
  8. K3, k2tog, ssk, k3 
  9. Yo, k2, yo, k2, yo, k2, yo, k2
  10. K3, k2tog, k1, k1f&b, k1, ssk, k2
  11. K tbl, yo, k2, yo, k1, yo, k2tog, ssk, yo, k1, yo, k2, yo
  12. K4, yo, k2tog, k2tog, yo, ssk, ssk, yo, k3
  13. K tbl, yo, k1, yo, k3, yo, k2, k1f&b, k2, yo, k3, yo, k1, yo
  14. K8, yo, ssk, ssk, k2tog, k2tog, yo, k5
  15. K tbl, yo, k3, yo, k1, ssk, k1, sl1, k3tog, psso, k1, k2tog, k1, yo, k3, yo
  16. Knit
  17. K tbl, yo, ssk, k1, k2tog, yo, k7, yo, ssk, k1, k2tog, yo
  18. Knit
  19. K tbl, yo, k5, yo, ssk, k3, k2tog, yo, k5, yo
  20. Knit
  21. K tbl, yo, k7, yo, ssk, k1, k2tog, yo, k7, yo
  22. Knit
  23. K tbl, yo, k9, yo, sl1, k2tog, psso, yo, k9, yo
  24. Knit
  25. K tbl, yo, k11, yo, ssk, k10, yo
  26. Knit

 

Petals

Work the following pattern between each marker.

  1. Ktbl, *yo, k tbl, yo, ssk, k7, k2tog* Repeat from * to * until 1 st before marker, yo, k tbl, yo, slip marker.
  2. Knit
  3. Ktbl, *yo, k3, yo, ssk, k5, k2tog* Repeat from * to * until 3 sts before marker, yo, k3, yo, slip marker.
  4. Knit
  5. Ktbl, *yo, ssk, k1, k2tog, yo, k7* Repeat from * to * until 5 sts before marker, yo, ssk, k1, k2tog, yo, slip marker.
  6. Knit
  7. Ktbl, *yo, k5, yo, ssk, k3, k2tog* Repeat from * to * until 5 sts before marker, yo, k5, yo, slip marker.
  8. Knit
  9. Ktbl, *yo, k7, yo, ssk, k1, k2tog* Repeat from * to * until 7 sts before marker, yo, k7, yo, slip marker.
  10. Knit 
  11. Ktbl, *yo, k9, yo, sl1, k2tog, psso* Repeat from * to * until 9 sts before marker, yo, k9, yo, slip marker.
  12. Knit 
  13. Ktbl, yo, k11, *yo, ssk, k10* Repeat from * to * until marker, yo, slip marker.
  14. Knit 

Repeat the petals pattern 4 more times, for a total of 5 repeats.

Outer Edge

  • Increase round: Ktbl, yo, k until marker, yo, slip marker.
  • Even round: Knit

Alternate increase and even round for ten total rounds. Work 5 additional rounds in seed stitch.

  • Seed stitch increase: Ktbl, yo, *k, p* repeat from * to * until marker, yo, slip marker.
  • Seed stitch even round: P, k around.

Cast off loosely in pattern.

[Img:3]

Edited 3/16/2011 - Fixed error in line 7 and 13 of flower pattern.
Edited 3/17/2011 - Couple more.
Edited 3/20 - Dyed.
Edited 3/27 - Couple tweaks
Edited 3/31 - Row 15 will be the death of me.

[img:4]

, ,

Scrap Quilt Pattern

, ,

In economics, externalities are the unintended side effects of industry. Similarly, this quilt is the side effect of many of the other quilts I've made. I always buy more fabric than I think I'll need, so I thought it was time to turn the left overs into some thing more awesome.

This quilt is a good way to use up scraps. Each color strip uses only a 3" strip of the width of the fabric. It's a quick and easy quilt, but still interesting.

If you're interested in making other sizes, it should be simple to scale up. If you'd like help, let me know. I'm happy to do it, if there is interest.

[img:1]

Externality Quilt

Finished size

36"x48" - a bit smaller than crib size

Supplies

  • Eight sets of twelve 3" blocks
  • 2/3rd white (or contrast) fabric, cut into eight 3" x width of fabric strips
  • 56" x 80" Batting - I doubled the batting to make the quilt extra fluffy. A precut twin size piece is large enough.
  • Backing fabric - 1 1/3rd yards
  • 1/3rd yard for binding
  • Yarn for tieing
  • Thread and other common quilting notions

Top of the Quilt

For each two row set of one color, you will need one strip that is 3" by the width of the fabric. Since this quilt is meant to use scraps, you might not have strips that are the full width of the fabric. This is no big deal, it will just require more cutting.

  • If you have a 3" x width of fabric strip, grab one of the strips of white. Sew the two strips together along the long edge. Press seam toward the color. Cut this down to twelve 3" x 5.5" pieces.
  • If you do not, cut twelve 3" blocks from the scraps that you do have. From the white, cut down a strip to 3" blocks. Sew one color block to one white block. Press seam toward the color

Continue until you have ninety-six 3" x 5.5" blocks with color on one side, white on the other. For each color, chain together six of these blocks. Press the seams toward the color. You now have sixteen strips of twelve squares (alternating color and white) which can be paired by color.

For each color pair, prepare to sew them together so that the color and white alternate. Take the time to pin and line up the seams. How well your seems line up can make or break this quilt.

[img:2]

One you have sewn together the pairs of strips, lay the strips out to determine what order you would like the colors to appear in. Pin and sew together the strips until the top is together. Press the seams open.

[img:3]

Finishing

I wanted the quilt to be extra fluffy, so I doubled up the batting. Tie in the middle of the white blocks.

Bind your new quilt

[img:4]

, ,

Square Quilt Pattern

, ,
Square Quilt Pattern

I started this baby quilt pattern months ago, but am just finishing the quilt now. I wanted to make something that was easy enough for a beginner, but still modern and creative. Only two fabrics are used for the top of the quilt, and a third print for the back. You'll want to pick high contrast fabrics for your two colors for the quilt top.

The fun thing about making this quilt is that you can place the blocks as I did or get creative with how you layout each square.  The free quilt pattern is below. I have not tested the pattern, so please let me know if you find anything goofy.

Archipelago Quilt

[img:2]

Finished size

42"x45"

This is larger than a crib size, but smaller than a throw. I like my baby quilt patterns to be this size, so that the blanket is large enough to throw on the floor when they're babies, but small enough for them to drag when they start toddling around.

Supplies

  • Color A (squares): 1/2 yard
  • Color B (background): 1 yard
  • 46" x 48" Batting
  • Backing fabric: 1 1/4th yards
  • Thread and other common quilting notions

Cutting

  • Color A
    • Cut one 4.5" strip and cut it down to eight 4.5" squares
    • Cut five 3.5" strip
      • Cut one down to twelve 3.5" squares
      • Set aside the other four for borders
    • Cut one 2.5" strip and cut it down to ten 2.5" squares
    • Cut one 4.5" strip and cut it down to the following
      • Four 3.5" squares
      • Ten 2.5" squares
      • Sixteen 1.5" squares
  • Color B 
    • Cut five 4.5" strips and then cut them down to the following
      • 32 - 4.5" x 1"
      • 32 - 4.5" x 1.5"
      • 32 - 4.5" x 2"
      • 16 - 4.5" x 4.5'
    • Cut four 1.5" strips and then cut them down to the following
      • 32 - 1.5" x 2"
      • 32 - 1.5" x 2.5"
    • Cut one 3.5" strip and cut it down to the following
      • 32 - 3.5" x 1"
      • 3 - 2.5" squares
    • Cut one 6.5" strip and cut it approximately 14" from the selvage

Piecing

Blocks

All the blocks are assembled the same. Using the pieces listed for each block type, do the following until all blocks are complete.

  • Sew the shorter blocks to the center square
  • Press the seams toward the outside
  • Sew the long side on each side
  • Press toward the outside

Block A - 8 total

These are the 4.5" Color A squares. Done!

Block B - 16 total

  • Center square - 3.5" square
  • Short sides - 3.5" x 1"
  • Long sides - 4.5" x 1"

Block C - 16 total

  • Center square - 2.5" square
  • Short sides - 2.5" x 1.5"
  • Long sides - 4.5" x 1.5"

Block D - 16 total

  • Center square - 1.5" square
  • Short sides - 2" x 1.5"
  • Long sides - 4.5" x 2"

Block E - 16 total

These are the 4.5" Color B squares.

Center Piecing

Sew the blocks together in the following order, press the seams, then sew the rows together from top to bottom.

  1. D | C | B | A | B | C | D | E | E
  2. E | D | C | B | A | B | C | D | E
  3. E | E | D | C | B | A | B | C | D
  4. E | D | C | B | A | B | C | D | E
  5. D | C | B | A | B | C | D | E | E
  6. E | D | C | B | A | B | C | D | E
  7. E | E | D | C | B | A | B | C | D
  8. E | D | C | B | A | B | C | D | E
  9. D | C | B | A | B | C | D | E | E
  10. E | D | C | B | A | B | C | D | E

I played with some alternative layouts, if you're interested in trying something else.

[img:3]

[img:4]

[img:5]

Borders

Sew shorter borders on the sides. Press the seams.

Sew the other borders on. Press the seams.

Backing Fabric

I like to piece the backing fabric, both because it looks awesome and it saves you fabric for quilts that are just a little too wide for 42" backing fabric.

Strip insert

  • Sew the remaining seven (four color A, three color B) 2.5" squares into a strip, alternating Color A and B. Press the seams.
  • Sew the 2.5" x 14.5" Color B strips on each side. Press the seams.
  • Sew the two 6.5" wide strips to each end of this piece.

Finish backing

  • About 14" in, cut the backing fabric the long way
  • Sew each piece on either side of the insert
  • Press seams

[img:6]

Back, quilt and bind your new quilt

I stippled in the white and did a design in each block. Be creative

[img:7]