Sometimes you just need another baby blanket. My sweet little granddaughter, Eleanor, was starting to outgrow the blanket I wove for her when she was born. We needed a blanket that was just a bit longer so that we could really wrap her up for her naps. When I want to weave a blanket in a hurry, my go-to yarn is 8/4 cotton. It comes in a variety of colors so I’m not having to dye. I love dyeing yarn, but it takes quite a bit of time and I just wanted a quick weave.
I’m not very confident yet in choosing colors so I will often use a painting, photograph, or anything artistic as inspiration. This time I choose to use the rug we have in the living room. I grabbed cones of 8/4 and started matching.
I knew I was going to use natural as the weft for the entire blanket so I wasn’t concerned about the value of the colors I chose. I opted to use a dark blue/light blue, dark green/light green, and then a red/peach. I grouped these together in the warp separated by natural. The colors were woven in twill and the natural stripes in basketweave.
Each colored section was threaded in different twill tie ups and the basketweave threaded as 11331133.
The sett used for this blanket was 12 epi and I wove a balanced weave so the the ppi was 12. The blanket contained 479 ends and was 40 1/4 inches in the reed. I wove a 4 inch hem in basketweave (can’t use plain weave if your warp contains basketweave as the floats will be too long), then 49 inches of twill and then the 4 inch hem. The hem was treadled 11331133… and the body of the blanket 1234321234…1234321234…. Here’s a picture of my treadling.
After washing and hemming, the blanket ended up to be 33 1/2 inches wide and 43 1/2 inches in length (not including the hem). For a little 6 month old, this blanket size is just perfect! Here’s a picture of little Eleanor snuggled up with her aunt Lizzie for a nap.
Love those little toes sticking out! Maybe I’ll need to weave a just a “little bit longer” blanket in a few months.
There it is- my quick and easy baby blanket. I have to admit using the same color for the weft helped move the weaving right along.
