Back in August of 2014, I completed a variety stitch baby blanket. We weren’t sure what the gender was going to be, so it was done in semi neutral colors of green violet and yellow. The key with this blanket is that it came off of someone seeing the one I had made in July for someone else and really liking what I did there. They wanted something similar – but in bright colors. The end result? I think it turned out great!
The blanket itself had lots of texture, having some shell stitches, some wave stitches, a few honeycomb stitches, and then a few V-type stitches. I think it turned out really nice for a little boy or girl.
Back in July of 2014, I started work on a pretty pastel baby blanket that would be suitable for a boy or a girl. I had the prettiest butter yellow, pale green, and light lavender. It reminds me a bit of an Easter egg in how it turned out.
The stitches done for this are a selection of triple V stitches, standard doubles, shells, and Criss-Crosses.
The edging for it was done with a simple 5 double crochet stitch & chain 1, then chain 5, single crochet in each chain one around. It made for a smooth flat laying edge.
I enjoyed making this blanket as it whipped up quickly and the colors are some of the prettiest I’ve worked with so far. Plus, because it was double strand, it worked up to a lofty thick blanket.
About 3 weeks ago, I bought some weaving sticks after seeing a little video on how they worked on one of the crochet websites. I love yarn, and have been feeling that my crochet “mo jo” as it’s nicknamed has been kind of going to the wayside. No patterns inspired me, no stitches were kicking up my interest. And oh so many Works in Progress (WIPs) that just weren’t taking my fancy.
I thought a change of technique might be just the thing, and it turns out, it was. What are weaving sticks? Well, they’re basically a series of dowels which have a hole in one end. You put a weft string through the hole, and then you weave in and out and out and in around the dowels. You push down the weaving as you go, and eventually, it ends up on the weft string you had put through the hole. Maybe this will help tutorial wise?
Anyhow, after getting the sticks, I decided to try my hand at it and experiment. My first attempt was with some chunky yarn in red and grey. I wasn’t sure how long the actual “weft” needed to be, so I started out with 5 strands at arm length. From there, the chunky yarn was added. I learned that the weft strands could have been a bit longer, but this made an ear warmer that ties at the back of the head in chunky acrylic yarn.
I like how fast it went – about an hour – and am liking the difference in texture and feel. It looks a bit rustic I think.
Close up on the texture and the end. I’m not exactly happy with the “end” on this first attempt, but I’ll keep trying – because I think this is more down to me and how I did it, rather than the sticks themselves. I think it will be neater on a second attempt.
