Photo February - Day Eleven

Making Baby Blankets

I haven't made one of these for a while.

There was a time where it was all I did most evenings, especially as there are three sets of twins in my circle of friends.

Yes, I can crochet. So mark me with the uncool brush. I also knit well and I'm not too bad a doing tapestry - though I can't cross stitch to save my life. Handicrafts are something my grandmother taught me how to do when I was a child and I've never forgotton how. I find it really relaxing.

This is my one little talent of sorts. When friends bring a baby into the world, I will get out my crochet hook and make the baby a blanket for their cot. It's a tradition handed down from my grandmother who used to make baby blankets as well, but she made the small squares and sewed them together, always ensuring that the colours were co-ordinated - although if the selected colours were blue and green she had to label them clearly - strangely, my grandmother was blue / green colourblind - one of her many foilbles along with not being able to say Czechoslovakia and quiche properly. Funny the things you remember.

Anyway, as I'm not that neat a sewer, I just make nice big square blankets. I have one on my bed that I made when I was in my teens - it covers my double bed. It's the perfect weight in summer to give a bit of weight without the warmth of a duvet (doona).

Over the years I've made a couple of bedspread sized ones for friends. It's not a hardship - actually it's something to do in front of the television. I rather like making things for friends. Okay, who am I kidding, I just love making things - and making baby clothes and blankets is something modern society no longer does as much.

The blankets are also a lovely keepsake although it's nice to know that they get used. I made Blarney's boys one each, and they've been sleeping with them since they were babies. Blarney was telling me on the weekend that she had to wash Lance's blanket and he stood watching it go round and round in the washing machine, crying all the time saying that it was broken. That's cute. The boys love their blankets.

I've also made mini ones for Maow Maow's bed. Whipping them up in an evening or two, my favourite cat thinks that these are the best things ever to sleep on. When he stays at my place he makes a nest out of my blanket (as does Mrs Squeaky Puss come to think of it) so he feels quite privileged to have his own. Unfortunately he destroys them over time so every year or so I whip him up a new one.

So this blanket will be for Georgie and Thom's bairn when it arrives in a few months. She doesn't know what sort of baby she's having but said that if a blanket was to be made, nice bright colours would be the go - none of this pink for girls, blue for boys deliniation any more. Two blues, a purple,  a green and white seem like a funny mix, but they work. I tend to use the cheapest acrylic wool I can find at Kmart or Lincraft. The blankets all turn out the same - and they are easily washed and don't shrink. Another necessity.

I hope she and Thom like it.

And I have enough wool so that once this is finished my favourite cat will have a new mat to grace the back of the sofa by the start of winter.

That will make him very happy indeed.