Summer 2014 Bucket List

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Day #4: Where are they now?


Today we are looking back on projects from the past to see how they've held up over the years. 

I've been thinking about this topic all day and having a hard time coming up with something to write about. I've knitted a lot of things over the years but couldn't really think of anything in particular I wanted to write about. I looked back to the knitting I did when I first started out, which was late in 2004.

When my sister was pregnant with her first in 2005 I decided to knit her a baby blanket. I went to Wal-Mart (I know right?) and picked out some Bernat Harmony in a sage green colour. I didn't know much about yarn then but figured I needed something washable. Harmony isn't listed on Bernat's website anymore, but there are some pictures of other people's stashes on Flickr. As you can see from those photos it is a somewhat textured yarn. I worked on the baby blanket on the bus and while at work (I worked in a call centre at the time and we could knit between calls). 

When the blanket was finished I thought it was really ugly and felt embarrassed to give it to my sister. So off I went to Lewiscraft, a now defunct craft store, and bought 4 balls of a Bernat worsted weight acrylic in pale yellow. I had probably less than a week at this point to start and finish another blanket before the baby shower on Easter Sunday. I worked, worked, worked on that blanket right up until the last  minute. I thought I was going to run out of yarn but I just made it. I gave it to my sister at the baby shower and she seemed really happy about it. I ended up giving her the other blanket too, even though I thought it was ugly. 

Gracie's Baby Blanket #1
The second baby blanket I knit that year

My sister gave birth to a baby girl in April of that year and over the years I wondered if she had used the blankets. I never saw them around when my niece was just a baby. Well a few years ago I was staying at my sister's house for a few days over the summer and we were sitting outside. My niece was 4 years old and out she comes from the house with the ugly green blanket! I couldn't believe it but apparently that was her favourite "blankie" and she did lug it around the house all the time. In that moment I felt really proud that my niece chose the ugly blanket to be her favourite. My sister tells me both blankets are still around. My niece uses them with her dolls or my sister covers up my nephew when he's cold.

I know now that there are other options for knitting baby blankets aside from just acrylic. I'm not going to knock others for using it, as it is very washable. However there are also lots of good cottons and superwash wools to chose from, as well as some really nice blend yarns.

1 comment:

  1. Oh, I'm so glad that she liked the 'ugly' blanket! There's no telling with kids!

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