The Baby Blanket Project

May
5

Almost four months ago, I started my winter project to make two baby blankets for twin babies due in July. NOT MINE! (Sheesh.)

Hers.

Kate (52’s daughter) got married last summer, and now this summer, she’s making a family with two babies. Not knowing what the babies would be, I chose neutrals–one in yellow, blue, and lavender, and the other in white, peach, and green.

The blanket is striped, mostly half-double crochet and some single crochet with cute little crocheted flower accents. I found the (free) pattern here.

I was making good progress on the first blanket for awhile.

Then I fell woefully behind. I did a couple of rows every week. Which tapered off to doing no rows every week. And now my winter project has become my spring project because you know what? THE BABIES ARE STILL COMING. And they DON’T WAIT.

Babies are like that. So demanding!!

By the way, it is now known that one is a boy and one is a girl. My colors still work, so I’m going to keep on keeping on. You know, in my lapsed-frantic way. The frantic part being yesterday when I decided I was going to finish! the! blanket!

In one day!

Here’s what the blanket looked like when I started yesterday:

Do you have weird stuff on your coffee table? Here’s what’s on my coffee table (besides the usual mail and piles of magazines). Goat cookies.

A math field day plaque. (It’s Weston’s. He uses it as a coaster….)

Little guys! Where did they come from?

Dungeons & Dragons! I so don’t understand this game.

Oh, the baby blanket! SEE????? That’s exactly why these baby blankets aren’t finished yet.

Here’s what the baby blanket looked like at the end of the day.

Notice that it’s STILL NOT DONE. (However, also note that it took me four months to crochet half the blanket and a few hours yesterday to crochet nearly half of the rest of it. What’s up with that?)

The main part of the blanket is now close to finished. It lacks two more sections of striping then the edging and flower accents. I’m going to finish it today.

Really!!!

And then I’m going to start the other one!!!

Then I’m going to start baby blankets for my non-existent grandchildren. My children are still teenagers, of course. But in light of my normal pace of baby blanket production, I’m thinking that starting now is a good idea!

Did you finish your winter project? What’s on your coffee table?





Comments

  1. judyh says:

    Funny, as I was reading yesterday’s blog just a few minutes ago, I thought about the baby blankets you were making and wondered if you had finished them. THEN, clicked on today’s blog and what do you know, you wrote about the blankets. Wow!

  2. themandabear says:

    Cute Blanket!

    My coffee table always has something that shouldn’t be on there on there…anything from fish food and water test kits to piles of books and chewed up papers (rabbits do that).

  3. Granny Trace says:

    :snuggle: you are not alone..many tables in my house are filled with started projects.Funny I too have a blanket I am crocheting the exact size. But no goat cookie containers. πŸ™‚
    Granny Trace

    http://www.grannytracescrapsandsquares.com

  4. CindyP says:

    LOVE the blanket! Deadlines…you work best under deadlines (faster approaching ones πŸ˜‰ )

    A boy and a girl! Perfect on first try πŸ™‚

    I finally gave up on the coffee table, there isn’t one now. It continuously had too many things that did not belong…and was swiped onto the floor by a black lab’s tail.

  5. kellytorrey says:

    I started a sweater for my 13 year old daughter this winter and I’ve gotten both sleeves and from the waist to the armpits done. It’s the biggest project I’ve ever attempted and I still haven’t grown tired of it, so I guess that’s a good thing. The pattern is the Wonderful Wallaby and it’s a knitted sweatshirt, with a hood and front pocket. It’s really cute!

  6. BunnyRuth says:

    Well, I finished “A” project… just not the one I had planned to finish. My goal was to finish a quilt I started the year before but then got on a hat making project. I think that, as someone else mentioned, working under pressure… or at least with a specific goal… helps to motivate me. The quilt is just something I am making to use up scraps, I have no specific plan for it when finished. But then I was asked to make hats for a local shelter and that took over. Completed 45 polar fleece hats… the quilt is no further along than it was at Christmas. Maybe next winter… πŸ˜†

  7. rurification says:

    My project is a wrap in tunisian crochet. Yesterday, my coffee table had a puzzle, piano music, coasters, matches, a plastic bag with mystery contents, Easter decorations, bits of fabric, assorted pencils and cat toys on it. I only know because we did a Big Clean yesterday — my MIL came over for dinner. It’ll probably be 6 months before it gets a serious clean up again.

  8. tinamanley says:

    My newest grandbaby is two weeks old and I did manage to finish a knitted dress, hat, booties and bloomers and a sleep sack. It’s a good thing I made it 6 months size. She’s a big baby!!

  9. JerseyMom says:

    I got rid of my coffee table….it was always getting piled up with things that belonged somewhere else. Now that ‘stuff’ ends up on other surfaces but at least they are not right in the middle of the family room πŸ˜‰ I finished one winter project – a new mini-tote in aloha prints that makes me happy when I use it to carry my lunch and other miscellaneous things back and forth from home to work. It doesn’t match anything that I wear but it some make me smile when I look at it.

  10. prayingpup says:

    Hee, hee. My great grand baby was born March 1st. The blanket was started in September 2010. It’s half done – crocheted – and they’re coming to visit next month – I guess I’d better get on it! The coffee table . . . half eaten Milk Bone, guitar pick, piano music, coaster, Mother Earth News, tomato catalog, a piece of string and a squeaky dog toy! Oh, and yesterday morning’s half finished coffee cup!

  11. mommy2kai says:

    That blanket will be really pretty when you’re finished! When my husband and I got engaged, I started working on a beautiful counted-cross stitch wedding sampler. I got quite a lot done, but still need to finish the bride’s gown and put our names and wedding date on it. We’ve been married 16 years now! I showed it to my son not long ago, and he remarked that the groom in the sampler looked nothing like his dad, because his dad is bald and sampler-groom has a full head of hair. I told him a lot changes in 16 years!

    Other than the goat cookies, my coffee table has pretty much the same sort of things on it. I put them all way, but they always seem to find their way back.

  12. msmitoagain says:

    It’s cause you don’t sit still for very long at one time! Too busy with farm, critters and kids…

  13. nancystaub says:

    Good for you to make such great progress yesterday!!! Now you’re ready to set the world on fire, aren’t you???? πŸ™‚ The other blanket will go much more quickly now that you’ve gotten your mind adjusted – and realized those babies won’t wait! (I did the same thing with only one baby – and hoped that I’d finish the project before her high school graduation!) I have faith in you. The blanket looks wonderful, too!!! You’re doing a great job. Can’t wait to see the finished project!!!!! πŸ™‚

  14. Window On The Prairie says:

    I started to crochet a rag rug about a year ago now. I may have to wait until retirement to get it done which is about 20 years from now. Hope the fabric doesn’t rot before then. πŸ˜€

  15. tami says:

    I’m with cindyp, any thing left on the coffee table is fair game for the dogs. so our coffee table is pretty clear, only a candle and a box of shells from the beach. My sister is the fastest crocheter(?)I know. A few years ago when she was down here in Fla for vacation I showed her a afgan project that had been sitting in my closet for a while and she finished it in 2 days, it was unbelievable. :sun: I rather work outside in the garden,or do almost anything else but house work, isn’t that what kids are for???

  16. brookdale says:

    I did finish my winter project, a quilt for my son and his fiancee’s wedding whenever that may be. It came out good I must say. Love your baby blankets!

    On my coffee table? Let’s see…4 stacks of magazines dating back to last year, pencils, tablet, 2 coasters, 3 bookmarks, half-eaten bag of marshmallows :eating: , a couple used tissues, little dish for snacks, and of course on the few little bare patches is dust!
    Maybe it’s time to clean it off a little.

  17. TW says:

    I had two significant projects. One got finished; one not so much. Completed a photo book for my mom’s 80th birthday using HeritageMakers. Chronicled each decade of her 80 years. Her birthday was my deadline, so the pressure of that date got me through it. I did stay up until 2 a.m. working on it the last night in order to submit it for printing and allow a week to get it back.
    The other ongoing project is growth charts painted on canvas for my two-year-old niece and nephew. Had hoped to give it to them for Christmas. Didn’t happen. Next hoped for their 2nd birthday. Didn’t happen. Must find new date deadline for motivation.
    My coffee table looks pretty good (at the moment) with three magazines, a seed catalog, a dish for change ($$) and a TV remote. (My breakfast table doesn’t look so good.)

  18. TinaBell says:

    The blankie is looking good! I re-started a knitted shawl (the first one, over half done, mysteriously disappeared from work when I left it there accidentally…boo hoo) that is sitting gathering dust on my—you guessed it! Coffee table!! Along with some books, a couple of magazines, some cute coasters, candles and (ugh) cat hair…Time to dust.

  19. whaledancer says:

    I started knitting a red and green scarf to match the Santa hat I made myself for last Christmas, but I got side-tracked by making gifts and didn’t finish it. I just picked it up again, figuring that if I start now I might get it done in time for this Christmas.

    Coffee table: bird guides, a box of kitty treats, seed catalog, a notebook full of old church-camp newsletters, a photo album, several paperbacks and a vacuum cleaner instruction manual. Around here, that passes for tidy.

  20. oct4luv says:

    I have quite a few undone winter projects, and not just from this past winter…

  21. yvonnem says:

    I didn’t have a winter project, but I can tell you what’s on my coffee table right now. My husband’s feet are propped up on it and there are three remote controls, some magazines and dust!

  22. LisaAJB says:

    No, I didn’t finish my winter project. I’m not even half done with the duvet that was going to be done by June. My godmother helped me a lot with it, and she’s done seventy five percent of what is done now. Lazy me.

  23. holstein woman says:

    Actually, I don’t remember where my coffee table is. I tore my livingroom apart and ripped up the carpet over a year ago and BO got sick and I never finished the livingroom…Project for this winter is still in the livingroom on the floor-A bed for the Master bedroom that I started refinishing. I am almost finished. Don’t remind me though because I have 1 finished pair of socks done one on the needles ready for the heels to be done and one not started because I am learning how to knit from the toe up, those have to be done in order for the class I paid for. They will be ready by Saturday. I’ll get it done, I’ll get it done….. :cowsleep:

  24. jkubemt1 says:

    I started at least 2 projects. One is a five point star aphgan for a boy. I however ran out of yarn and have yet to go get more. The other projest was to finish the other projects I have going on but decided to just get ride of some yarn so I am making plant hangers. As for the blanket I will work on it this fall again. We will be planting soon and really wont have time to continue.

  25. amyjane22 says:

    I never start “winter projects”. Perhaps I should….I just start “projects” and OCASSIONALLY finish them whenever. If I gave myself at least a seasonal deadline, maybe I’d get them done quicker! Haha.

    On my coffee table, there’s an empty toy bin, a folded quilt, a picture I need to hang in the other room, a dusting rag, a cup of water, and I’m sure there are jelly fingerprints on that table…because there’s rarely a surface in our home that doesn’t have little jelly fingerprints on it πŸ™‚

  26. Vicki in So. CA says:

    The blanket looks great! Pretty colors for both of them. And how fast you’re going now. :shimmy: Go Suzanne!

    My winter projects: I knitted knee socks and a cowl for my daughter, slouchy hat, fingerless gloves and pullover sweater for my DH, and am now on to a lacy scarf for myself. My coffee table: Gardening books & catalogs, today’s mail, a couple of pencils and pens, a cat toy, this- and last-month’s magazines, a big box of crayons that didn’t make it into the boxes of stuff we took to Vancouver WA for our grandsons last week (drat!) and a coaster with my glass of water on it.

  27. wickedgoodshari says:

    funny you should ask… a baby blanket for the Binky Patrol (https://www.binkypatrol.org/) and the project seemed to go JUST LIKE YOURS!! Amazing! My deadline is end of May (I have to send it in) and I am putting together my squares.

    Most of my projects go this way… starts off slowly and either peters out or finishes in a quick flash after a long procrastination.

    Best of Luck!
    smiles,
    Shari

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