Crocheted Baby Blanket

Crocheted Baby Blanket

Today, I completed the baby blanket I have been crocheting.  It is for one of my colleagues who is having her first baby.  Since she doesn't know if she is having a boy or a girl, I decided to make the blanket with neutral colors for a unisex baby blanket.  Lemon yellow, white, and mint green are some of my favorite colors for unisex baby blankets.  To make it a little more challenging, I decided to use the yarn I had in my yarn stash.

In my yarn stash, I had half a ball of multicolored baby yarn, which was white with bits of yellow, pink, blue, and mint green, half a ball of white yarn, some pink yarn, a little pale blue yarn, and three partial balls of lemon yellow.   Not enough of any one color for an entire blanket, but perhaps enough if I combined them.  I decided not to use the pink or the blue yarn and to use only the multicolored, white and yellow yarn.  I am not a very skilled crocheter.  I know a few basic stitches and I can manage a granny square.  I decided to base the blanket on a granny square and just go round and round, building on the central granny square.

Start of a Granny Square

The size of the blanket was going to be determined by the amount of yarn I had, with the option of buying more yarn, if needed.

I decided to start off with the multicolored yarn I had, then, bordered that with the white yarn.  Finally, a wider border with the yellow yarn.  Apparently, one of the balls of yellow yarn I had was from a different dye lot than the others, because the color is slightly paler than the others!  It is not very noticeable (I think), unless you know what to look for, but, if you look closely, the paler yellow yarn is in the middle of the yellow border, with the darker yellow on either side:

Completed Blanket with Leftover Yarn

Close up of the different yarns

The majority of the blanket is made in a stitch known as double crochet in the US and triple crochet in the UK.  Since I learned to crochet when I was in Sri Lanka, which is a former British Crown Colony, the British terms are what I grew up learning, but I've lived long enough in the US to be familiar with the American terms, as well.  In my opinion, the exact stitch used to make a blanket such as this doesn't make a lot of difference.  But, it you are following a pattern, then, it is important to know if it is a US or UK pattern, otherwise the length of the stitch will differ and that might make a difference in the finished item. 

After I crocheted as many rows of double crochet (US)/triple crochet (UK) as I could with the amount of yarn I had, I crocheted a row of stitches known as half double crochet (US) or half triple crochet (UK) all the way around.  I think it gives the item a more finished edge.  The blanket is approximately 40 inches square.

Close Up of the Finished Edge

I hand-washed the finished blanket in some warm soapy water and lay it flat on a rack to dry.  Once dried, it will be wrapped up and kept to be given whenever the baby shower is scheduled.  I will make a card to go with it, next.

This is the yarn that was leftover from the baby blanket project:

Leftover Yarn

Each ball is less than 2 inches in diameter.  I was able to use the multicolored yarn and the yellow yarn to make one granny square for the granny square blanket I am planning to make with all my odds and ends of leftover yarn.  That was the end of that yarn!

Granny Square made with some of the leftover yarn

I think I managed to make good use of my yarn stash, don't you?   Obviously, I bought the yarn at some point, for some other project.  But, because I used the leftover yarn, this was a very frugal gift to make.  Do you crochet?  Are you able to make anything other than granny squares?