It's Baby Season

Well, these days, when is it NOT baby season?  It seems like everyone's tummy is growing and the babies just keep a-comin'.  I guess I can't say much either though, since I have the bug myself.

All these babies means I've been knitting blankets like crazy.  I've made so many, I've lost track of all the blankets I've made in the last 5 years.  I used to tell you about them, but the turnaround has been so quick on some, I haven't been able to share them with y'all.

Recently I found this pattern.  It's a crochet pattern, which I've dabbled with here and there, but all of my past blankets (save one) have been knitted.  Dudes.  Crocheting certainly has its benefits.  It's easy, it can be really quick, and it's so much more handy to rewind if you make a mistake.

It's so easy, I've been able to make two of these in the time it would have taken for me to make one knitted blanket.  They look really good too.

The pattern is called a diagonal box stitch.  You start with a corner and crochet diagonally, increasing a new box every row until you like the size (at the halfway point,) and then start decreasing until you finish at the opposite corner.  A link to a good video for how to do it can be found here.

That's it.  Diagonal box stitch the whole thing.  Of course, the yarn used in both these blankets is upcycled from old Goodwill sweaters.  The first is almost an entire sweater, and the super colorful one is one I made from all of the tiny leftover balls from all of the sweaters I've unraveled over the years.  Looking at all the different colors made me realize how many sweaters I've deknitted.  It's kind of cool to think that it's a culmination of all the hours I've spent recycling yarn and giving hideous sweaters a new life.  I was worried that it would look funny to combine all the different colors, but I think the crazyness of it all gives it a fun vibe.  I honestly thought about keeping it for our own little one because I liked it so much, but it went to a recipient that loved it enough to make it worth gifting.

The original sweater was actually not that ugly.

The yarn is a cotton/wool mix so it's extra warm AND soft.

Don't you LOVE all the color?

It makes me so happy...

Both these blankets took about half the time it would take me to knit a blanket the same size.  They were smaller than past ones, at about 3-3.5ft across, but what's so great about crocheting is the fact that you can see exactly how big it's getting and you can control the size much easier.  Also, they are almost exactly square with much more even edges. Started adding a crocheted border to the colorful one, but it detracted from the smooth edges it already had, so I nixed it.

I think I may be looking to crocheting for much of my future baby blankets.

Unfortunately, right now, I have been forced to take a knitting/crocheting/overall crafting hiatus.  Why?  Pregnancy-induced carpal tunnel syndrome.  Yeah, it's a real thing and it totally blows.  It started about 5 weeks ago and it has been progressively getting worse since.  Sometimes it keeps me up at night because it hurts so bad and I can barely dress myself in the morning due to the weakness that I wake up with.  Several of my fingers have been in a permanently tingly-numb state for the past month.  Yay.  I wear a brace on my right wrist for about 20 hours a day.

I'll write a post sometime this week about how I've been doing otherwise with some pics of our attempt at creating a nice nursery in half of our spare room.  Until then, have a lovely (rainy, if you're in Western Washington) President's Day weekend, everyone.