Baby Blankets

I have reached the age where many of my friends are having grandkids, and I have been having fun making baby blankets for the little ones.  The last couple that I made were delivered after the babies were born, so I decided I needed to have an "inventory" of blankets on hand.  

In looking for baby blanket patterns and designs, I ran across a publication from the Indiana Weaving Guild that published all of the drafts from a guild show of blankets in 2009.  click here.  One of these drafts was for a Houndstooth Huck woven in three colors of 5/2 cotton by Phillip Ewart.  I liked the draft and the changes in patterns made by the 3 colors.  This was the first project woven on my new to me Norwood 8 harness loom.  Baby blankets need a wider width than my Baby Wolf can handle and this was the first time I could weave an 8 shaft pattern over 25 inches.  The loom did well, but the operator had a few issues with beaming, since the Norwood warp beam runs the reverse of my other looms. The blankets were slow to weave since they required three shuttles holding the three colors of weft.

The only other issue is that the first baby born was a girl and this blanket was woven in blue and white.  Oh well, I don't think Ella's parents will be raising a girly girl and won't mind a little change up in the nursery.  

Structure   Houndstooth Huck
Source   Indiana Weaving Guild Baby Blankets
Date Finished August 2015

Loom Norwood

Reed 8, 16 epi

Warp     Fiber cotton

              Count 5/2

              Color  Poplin 36, Natural 79, Nassau 23

              Mfr Valley

              Source Webs

Warp     Width in Reed

              Ends 594

              Length 7 yds

Weft     Same as warp

Beat                       50/50                     

Size 37 X 55 after finishing and hemming

Notes

Baby Blankets

Brittnee's twins, Hunter and Walker, were born in late July and I just finished a baby blanket for them.  My excuse is that they were born 2 months pre-mature, so instead of being 3 months late with the blanket, I should only be one month late.  No excuse of course.  My other rationale is that the big loom is in NC and I was in Montana the first couple of months, where my looms have a maximum weaving width of 26", definitely not wide enough for a blanket.  The boys spent their first month in the hospital but are doing splendidly now, gaining lots of weight, and doing what babies should do.

The blanket is based on a design from Handwoven January/February 2012.  Fortunately I found the correction to treadling on Handwoven's website.
http://www.weavingtoday.com/media/g/corrections/default.aspx

I absolutely love this fabric, which is 50% slubby cotton and 50% rayon chenille, and so it has some structure from the cotton, but the chenille adds a nice softness.  I selected colors a little darker than recommended in the magazine and the blanket is much more vibrant.  I hope the twins and Brittnee like it as much as I do.

The darker shades in the blanket, blues, purple and turquoise, would look great as a scarf, 3 blocks wide or about 6 inches wide.  Warping the loom was not fun, given the alternating colors and natural cotton and the frequent color changes.  But once the loom was warped, it was a breeze to weave.  The only issue was the different stretchiness of the rayon vs. the cotton.

Date Finished  October 2012

Loom  Newcomb

Weave Structure Log Cabin
Reed  12

Warp     Fiber  Cotton Flake Noho

              Count  1100 yd/LB

              Color  Natural

              Mfr

              Source  Webs

Warp     Fiber  Rayon Chenille

              Count  1450 yd/lb

              Color  turquoise, blue, purple, pink and salmon

              Mfr

              Source Webs
Warp     Width in Reed 36 inches

              Ends  423

              Length  4 yds

Weft      Same as warp

Beat                       50/50                     

Size       36 X 50, after washing 

Notes

Spencer's Baby Blanket

 This project was about stretching my current limits.  Everything that I had been working on since starting up again was in plain weave, twill threading.  Pretty routine stuff and not complicated.  I decided to up the ante by weaving a baby blanket for Emilee and Adam's new baby girl Spencer and had a deadline - due date of March 3.  I had to use an acrylic that would be washable and dryable so it was over to Walmart to see what they have available in acrylic yarns.  They had a very thick acrylic, Bernat Baby Blanket, 100gms/86 yds that I would use for the weft.  I used a Birds Eye pattern from Marguerite Porter Davison's, A Handweavers Pattern Book, because it specified it worked well with thick wefts.  Unfortunately the pattern didn't show up very well due to how thick the weft was.  But it is very soft and full and should keep Spencer plenty warm.  There was a lot of draw-in on the project and one of my future projects will need to be a temple to spread the warp on larger projects.


Date Finished  February 2012

Loom  Newcomb

Weave Structure  Birds Eye

Reed  8 epi

Warp     Fiber  Acrylic Softee Baby

              Count  5 oz skein/362 yds - used 3 skeins

              Color  Antique white

              Mfr  Bernat

              Source  Walmart

Warp     Width in Reed  40 inches

              Ends  320

              Length  2.5 yds

Weft      Fiber  Acrylic Chenille

              Count  3.5 oz/86 yds - used 4 skeins

              Color Yellow

              Mfr  Bernat

              Source  Walmart

Beat                       Weft Faced        

Size  finished about 36 by 42

Notes  Lots of draw in.