Autumn Blanket

Does the fall automatically make crafters want to make blankets of some sort? If Katie and I are any indication of the whole, I would have to say yes. I got it in my head a couple weeks ago that I just had to make a blanket using the backing piece for my quilt that I had decided against using. And I needed to to it right now. It was a rather neutral pale yellow flannel so where do you go from there? Chris picked out the nice plaid, I had wanted something in an interesting pattern but there wasn't a lot to be had at the local fabric store.



Even though it is for a baby hope chest I have a real aversion to "baby" colors. In the first place I have to strive for gender neutral -- but also because I have a really acute sense of color. (Chris and I have a theory that because I have really poor night vision my rods must be really weak and my cones are super strong to make up for it) I want the things I make to last longer than babyhood and I want my future children to be around colors I like rather than the ones that are socially prescribed. It's all silly anyhow -- did you know that pink was originally the boy's color and blue the girls. Red is a more active color and pink is just pale red, so it makes sense. It changed sometime in the early 20th century. Such arbitrary rules we live by!



And here is how I made it:

Cut two 40 x 40 inch squares (or whatever size blanket you want) from flannel. Sew flannel wrong sides together leaving small opening to turn. Turn and top-stitch close to edge.

Cut a very long piece of yarn (mine ended up being 3 separate pieces and I hid the knots -- so it is possible to do but if you can do it all in one go you wouldn't have to fuss with the hiding) and use a tapestry needle to blanket stitch around with approximately 1/4 inch between each stitch. (Mine was a little off because I followed the plaid pattern on my flannel.)

Yarn weight – Fingering
Hook used – E

R1: join, 3 sc in each blanket stitch all the way around, join and turn
R2: ch 2, sk 1 st 1 dc * 1 dc ch 2 1 dc sk 2 st repeat from * to end join and turn
R3: ch 2, 3 dc into ch 2 portion of previous row to end, join and fasten off

(Because my blanket stitch was a little off on two sides I did 4 dc instead of 3 dc into each ch 2 to get the edging to lay flat.)

and TADA! Easy lovely and cuddly.