Under a snuggly blanket

I love to make blankets for babies and almost everyone, it seems, loves to get a handmade gift for their newborn.  So with two new babies expected in our family this summer, I had a lovely task ahead of me.

My parents were planning a trip to visit my sister and (hopefully) her new baby in mid-August and my gift had to be on that flight with them so that was a fixed deadline!  I started early, soon after my sister sent me an image of the nursery scheme they had included in their baby list.  I love a crochet squares blanket; all those little finishes, each square, each colour, each joined seam, each border colour!  I was finishing it right up til the last minute; I had to borrow a wool needle from my mum to sew in the border ends before I could leave it with them!

I had to tweak the colours towards the end to keep the balance more on the blues than the others and I'm really pleased at how it came out.  It's loosely based on the Elmer blanket from Little Tin Bird, my go-to crochet square for babies.

We were expecting a proper surprise this time round; no clue at all from any of our scans so I decided on a rainbow blanket for our little one.  This is a crochet granny stripe, you can find loads of patterns online but I think I originally found mine at Attic24.  It's approximately 60cm by 120cm, the same size as our cot, but folded in half, it's doing very nicely for the moses basket at the moment.

As usual, for both blankets, I've used Stylecraft Special DK acrylic yarn.  It's cheap and cheerful but you wouldn't know that from the feel of the finished blanket.  It's perfect for baby blankets because you can bung it in the washing machine and it washes and dries beautifully.

This blanket was not finished before the baby arrived but I did get it done in time to use it as a backdrop for some important photos!

On our final arrival

Looking back over my archives, the reason I've been quiet for so long is predictable;

This little love joined our noisy family at the end of August.  This year has been so full of good things that keeping sane meant choosing what to drop.  Children, home, work, husband and sleep won out!

Elias Andrew Longden Ingram

25th August 2015

7lb 13.5oz

He was nameless for nearly a week, much longer than our other little ones whose names were mostly set before they were born.  It didn't help that we truly didn't know what we were expecting; we actually had a girl's name ready to go.  He'd been Eli in my head for weeks but it didn't seem long enough for a 'proper' name.  A couple of days after he was born, Andy suggested Elias (which is the Greek form of Elijah and means 'The Lord Most High') but it was another 3 days before we could discuss it properly and make a decision.

The children have adored him since day one; I'm slightly concerned that Sammy will love him to pieces!  He's settled in nicely and I've felt better after this delivery than I did after any of the others.  Life carries on around him; Isaac's back at school for Year One, Anna's at preschool 5 mornings a week and Sam is just learning to talk.

Andy and I are tired and busy but delighted that our family is complete.  Here's to the next stage on our big adventure!