One thing that I love to do is make a baby blanket for a new baby in the family. There is a tremendous amount of joy when giving handmade gifts, especially when you know that it’ll be cherished for years. I always try to make a unique blanket for each kid. I also try to do it early, which doesn’t always happen…The record is when the kid was 5 years old, so as long as I finish before then it’s not the worst.
A recent addition was an adorable niece. I started a blanket but ended up hating the pattern which caused me to keep putting off working on the blanket. This is one reason I choose my patterns carefully. If I get bored and/or frustrated with the pattern I am inclined to not finish it. Maybe I will post with about that pattern later, but in terms of the blanket for my niece I decided to start a new blanket.
I opted to try out the waffle stitch for this. It looks like a luxurious, fluffy pattern and perfect for a baby. I had some left over baby yarn in some beautiful colors (from the bobble stitch animal blanket) plus some extra from baby blanket version 1. The pattern itself was very simple with just changing between the five colors. I found a simple guide to the stitch and followed that to get started (you can find the guide here: Amanda Crochets).
After I completed my color pattern I added a simple border to finish it off. I did one round of single crochet, one of half double crochet, another round of single and a final round of double crochet to finish off the border.
I am very happy with the end result. I am also a fan of the waffle stitch (so are the cats). This will not be the last time I made a blanket with this stitch.
**As a side note, since my cats loved laying on this blanket I made sure to wash it before sending it off (allergies) but ultimately failed because they managed to get their fur all over it before I could prepare it for shipping.
Additionally, this project was used to test out actually keeping track of the cost/time in making a crochet project. I found an app called CrochetLand that allows you to input your materials, time your progress and count rows. I was surprised to see what the suggested price to charge for the blanket would be just from the amount of time spent on the blanket(who would pay $300 for a baby blanket?!?). This blanket took 17.5 hrs to make (includes 100 rows and the border). I usually roughly estimate my time I think that I have been seriously underestimating my time spend crocheting.
As far as usability of the app it is fairly simple, the part I found somewhat restricting/annoying was having to constantly remember to use it and that it will drain my battery by keeping the screen on while timing.
Would I use the app again? Possibly if I want to sell my crochet. More than likely I would use it once to time a project and then use that time/price in repeated projects.
What do you think? Yay or nay on the waffle stitch? What other color combos would you want to see?
Also, how much would you spend on a handmade baby blanket? Share your thoughts below and don’t forget to check out NautiNautilus on Pinterest and Facebook. You can also follow my cats on Instgram (@nauti.nibbler).
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