Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is Thanksgiving Day here in the United States. We have celebrated the holiday twice in the last seven days. Needless to say, we are feeling fat and happy.

I’ve been holding on to some good news. But, now that it has been officially announced, I am free to tell the world… My son and his fiance are having a baby! I’m very excited!

Naturally, I immediately began searching for crochet and knitting patterns.

I’ve started a crocheted blanket based on the “Drunkard’s Path” quilting pattern. But, with 120 squares to make, it is turning into a tedious project. Of course, I’ve been sidetracked a couple of times.

The kids were here for our turkey day celebration last weekend, so I had to really work fast to get their first blanket finished.

Their favorite color is purple. Since we don’t yet know the gender of the baby, I thought purple would be a safe color to use.

I had never done a Bavarian project before and had to watch some YouTube videos to learn the technique. It is so easy!

I wanted to make the blanket a little bit bigger, but I was running out of time. I had to stop where I was the night before the kids left. This not-so-big square took the better part of a full skein of yarn in each color. It really is a wool eater!

But, it is super thick and it will be very warm for the little one. I figured that it really doesn’t matter how small it is, they are going to be getting more blankets from me. This one will take the child until he or she is 4- or 5-years old.

My sweetie likes the look of the reverse side and wants me to make one for him. I guess that will just be plain Catherine Wheels. I’ll probably just make it rectangle and work it back and forth, rather than in rounds. I think that would be easier.

I have been having some trouble finding a baby booties pattern that I like. Most patterns out there are really geared towards either male or female. There are some super-cute patterns and I can’t wait to find out the gender of the baby…

I found a pattern that met my preferred criteria: crochet, worked flat, and uses big yarn. Not that I’m completely opposed to knitting in the round with sock yarn… I’m just a slow knitter/knooker.

And, the kids brought me my Christmas present when they visited and it included a skein of Bernat Baby Blanket yarn (in the Pink/Blue colorway). I know that I don’t have the proper size knitting needles or knook to use this yarn and I knew it had to be turned into booties.

You may recall my previous experience with this yarn… I’m not a fan. Though, at least this time, the yarn doesn’t smell weird. This skein is the 100% polyester version and I wonder if the last stuff I used was the 100% nylon… This yarn is still stretchy and I still had a hard time identifying my stitches half the time. But, it took me less than an hour to make a set of booties (even with this difficult yarn), so that’s a huge plus!

The pattern is Bev’s Baby Cloud Booties. I like Bev’s patterns; they are simple and usually pretty quick to make.

I think next time I make these booties, I will just hold a few strands of a different yarn together.