Bobble Stitch Animal Blanket

So this piece was my first commission. It’s another baby blanket a friend asked me to make for another friend. Usually I spend a lot of time thinking about the parents when choosing a pattern or coming up with ideas so this one was a bit more challenging since I was going off a few words from a friend. Needless to say, I am very happy with how the whole project turned out.

So I knew the blanket was going to be for a baby girl. I also knew that the mom doesn’t like over the top girly (read: pink everything) and that she was going for a safari themed nursery. I searched around for some pattern ideas and then I remembered another WIP where I used a bobble stitch pattern to make a crab (maybe someday I will finish it and post it…).

If you aren’t familiar with a bobble stitch pattern let me explain. Basically it is a square with a popcorn stitch that pops out from the work to create an image. They are quite popular in baby blankets as you can have lots of cute animals, initials and words. A quick search of a bobble stitch blanket will reveal all kinds of beautiful blankets.

Now, I came across this pin on Pinterest:

I have no idea who the credit for this photo should go to..it is just a picture on Pinterest. Follow the link below to see the original pin.

Bobble stitch safari blanket

It’s a beautiful blanket with the exact idea I was thinking of. The problem was that it was just a picture and no pattern. Luckily since I have done that previous project with a bobble stitch pattern I was able to find the website with the pattern. Now this website is a treasure trove of bobble stitch patterns. Don’t believe me? Check it out:

https://kuddlykreationsbykari.weebly.com/free-patterns.html

Now it was a matter of choosing the ones I wanted. I opted for the elephant, monkey, hippo and giraffe. I then figured out how I wanted to assemble the squares and started a test square to estimate how much yarn I would need. You can see how I design my patterns below (please feel free to laugh at my quick versions of the animals). Once I had the design together I figured out how much yarn I needed and what colors I wanted then it was off to buy the yarn!

This is how most of my patterns start.

Now for this pattern I calculated how much yarn I would need based on a test square. I ended up going with the 1 lb skeins and did not use it all. You will most likely see another project in the same colors as I try to keep my stash under control.

Then came the part where I made squares galore for several days. Luckily for me I wasn’t working at the time so I had lots of free time. Once the squares were done it was stitch them together, make a border and voila! blanket done!

The finished product.

I opted for a simple border in which I used all 4 colors for a row of different heights: 1 row each of dc, sc, hdc and finally another row of dc. I felt a simple border would look best and I drew my inspiration from the original photo I saw on Pinterest.

A simple border but with some interest.

I am very pleased with the final product and my friend is also very pleased. But what are your thoughts? Are you a fan of the design? Would you make the same animal choices? Or maybe you would do a completely different theme? I know I have thought about a more marine touch to the blanket, but I’d need someone to gift it to since I really don’t need any more blankets myself…