Sometimes Neon Works

After I made a blanket for my cousin's new baby girl, her mom asked me to make some for the two older brothers. I was hesitant at first since I don't normally take custom requests. If you have a baby I will make you a blanket. But it's a gift and you don't normally know it's coming so I get to pick the design, the colors and the time frame in which it's completed. I have thought about selling my blankets or opening a little Etsy shop but the pressure is too much. I want it to remain a fun hobby and not an added stress.

Well, my cousin convinced me and I got really excited about it! She pointed out a few favorite designs from my Pinterest page and I took it from there.

In my quest for new and interesting colors and yarns I found a few crochet blogs mentioning Stylecraft yarn so I went on the hunt for it. I found it at an online store called Deramores and loved the color selection of the Stylecraft DK yarn. It's a little thinner than the Red Heart Soft yarn I am used to working with but an unmatched color selection it's become my favorite yarn.

Seaside Chevron

I started with a chevron blanket that turned out looking a little like an ocean scene. I think I miss the ocean a lot because I am continually drawn to blankets like this. I have made blankets using this same stitch a bunch of times, I learned it from the YouTube channel New Stitch a Day. It's their sharp chevron tutorial. That channel is my go-to for every stitch I want to learn.

I don't really ever plan out how many rows I'm going to do, I just sort of crochet until it looks right. I knew I didn't want a white border so I just crocheted until it got close to where I wanted it and then I used the last row of gray to become the border. I did two or three whole rounds of double crochets to give it a nice thick edge. I also forgot to get a finished picture of this project but you get the idea.

Seaside Chevron Stats

Yarn: Stylecraft DK, Red Heart Soft

Colors: Turqoise, Spring Green, Silver & Mocha (Stylecraft) White (Red Heart Soft)

Hook Size: 6mm

Starting Chain: ~120

Finished size: ~40" square

Neon and Baby Blue Shells

I love making shell blankets. They come together so quickly and they always look great! I purposely choose 5 colors for these blankets so I can carry the yarn up the sides. (See how I do that in the middle of this post) When I ordered the color Jaffa I knew it would be bright orange but I didn't expect it to be traffic cone orange! I decided to use it anyway and I love the way it turned out in this blanket. It has a modern feel to it.

Neon & Baby Blue Shells Stats

Yarn: Stylecraft DK
Colors: Jaffa, Silver, Sherbet, Mocha, White
Hook Size: 5.5mm
Starting Chain: ~110
Finished size: ~40" square

I wanted these two blankets to coordinate but not necessarily match so I used the same neutral colors for each- white, silver and mocha. I was able finish up the shells blanket while we were in Utah for the 4th of July so we delivered these blankets in person. I don't think the boys were as excited about them as they were about their Duplo blocks but I go this picture a few weeks later from their mom. There is nothing like seeing a little one snuggled up in something I made. It's so much fun!