Weddings and Babies......Babies and Weddings

I've finally entered the period in my life when my children's friends and my nieces and nephews are getting married and having babies.  Color me excited because, as a crafter, I now have a legitimate reason to pull out patterns and buy new yarn!  So far this year, I need to make two baby afghans and a full size afghan for a wedding gift.  While that may sound daunting to some, I find it absolutely exhilarating.

Gift giving for baby showers and weddings has certainly changed since my generation was in the thick of getting married and having babies.  Back then, gift registries existed, but mostly for the purpose of ensuring your china collection would be complete.  We spent a lot more time choosing gifts and many times the gifts were handmade.  I have always given handmade gifts, mostly because I really enjoyed doing it.  These days, my gift may be the only handcrafted gift in the bunch.  Don't get me wrong - I'm not trying to be a gift snob.  But I do hope the art of crafting something worthy of being passed down is not a dying one.

The first blanket needs to be finished in about a month.  I choose a granny square from the Leisure Arts booklet "99 Granny Squares to Crochet".  Here's what it looks like:

The yarn I'm using is Plymouth's Dreambaby DK, quickly becoming my go-to yarn for baby blankets.  And, I can get it at my favorite local yarn shop, The Knitter's Edge.

When all of the squares are assembled and the chocolate brown edging made, I'll take a final photo and let you see the finished project.  I might even include the pattern!