Most people who know my oldest son (2.5 years old) know he is a blanket thief. What they may not know is that he also happens to be what I call a blanket murderer. The first blanket I made him was a bias knit garter blanket. It was large and blue and a sort of silky soft. I don't quite remember when he started using it, I believe it was before his first birthday.
But the problem with garter stitch, though simple, classic and beautiful, is that it is difficult to fix a snag. And boy could he cause a snag! He would bite a the blanket and drag a loop of yarn around his teeth... It drove me crazy! Then there is this thing he does where he wiggles his fingers to just the right spot where he gets strands of yarn to rest in the place between of his fingernail and finger. The wiggling results in snags and occasional holes in the blanket. Anyway, I did a lot of repair work to his favorite blue blanket. But there came a point in time where he had ripped a hole/holes and gotten the yarn in such a mess that it was no longer salvageable or safe to let him use. I call this picture Exhibit A:
Please note this was not the only blanket he has ruined. I made another just like his blue blanket so that he would have something when his favorite was in the wash... It received the same abuse. I even found small holes in one of our beautiful, expensive name brand muslin receiving blankets. An attempt was made to get him to switch to a crochet blanket which already had holes and would not be harmed by his "tactile fixation". I was not successful.
His most recent "victim" is a blanket that was made for me by some generous fellow knitters that I know through an online group. It has a variety of 12" squares on it all of different patterns... Wouldn't you know it, he was drawn to just one square: a garter stitch square that has a similar feel to his blue blanket. Every night he insists we help him find that square ("Other color!" as he emphatically calls it) in the blanket. He has even come to me in the middle of the night distressed because he cannot locate his precious "other color" on the blanket.
Half in desperation and half in love for my child, I decided to make my sweet blanket murderer another blanket for Christmas this year. And perhaps procrastinating other projects on my 'to do' list may have been a motivator for undertaking this task as well...
I decided to make it of many squares so that when one is ruined I can trade it out instead of having to scrap the whole thing. I also hope that the smaller squares will make it safer if/when he does pull a loop out of it. Every square is in garter stitch and most of the squares are made with the same brand yarn that his blue blanket was. It is a scrap blanket, so I have even included squares using the same yarn that was used to make his original blanket. It includes bits of yarn from many blankets I have made, leftovers from baby sweaters, scarves, shawls and it even has some squares made from leftover yarn from Elijah's Halloween costume this year.
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| I even got help from 'baby brother' |
It took me a while to find a pattern that would fit exactly what I wanted. I have been on a scrap blanket kick and wanted this one to look homey and homemade. It seemed a good idea to have a sort of random look so that if/when I have to replace squares I won't have extra hassle of fitting a particular color scheme. I finally settled on the Ron Weasley Blanket pattern. A lady studied glimpses of the blanket seen on the Harry Potter Movies and put together a pattern based on that blanket. I had seen this before but overlooked the pattern since it is what I considered fan paraphernalia. And while I enjoy the Harry Potter universe very much, I thought making a blanket just like the one from the movies seemed, well, kitschy. But once I got past my prejudice I realized the pattern was really just what I was looking for. I started out following the pattern color schematics for each square but very quickly ended up making my own designs for my squares. This really added a personalized touch. The blanket is comprised of two types of square: a plain knit garter and a bias knit garter. I ended up making 42 squares which is 14 less than the pattern calls for. I didn't want to make something too big for him especially given his tendency to drag his blankets around.
Anyway, it turned out lovely. I LOVE IT. To me it looks like it was designed for a boy by his mother. It is so perfectly homemade looking (and not in the bad way). I know there will be holes in it in no time, but I also know it will be well loved.
