Beneath The Blankey Round 7: The Rainbow

In this year of first retirements, I’ve crocheted 4 baby blankets for friends.  It’s been a very welcome place of joy in a very strange 9 months.  I find that I fall in love with each piece over the course of its making.  This week, I’m sharing each of the 7 baby blankets I’ve ever made, here and on Instagram.  May it be a place of rest and joy for you, too, in this year we call 2020.

• Made: August-October 2020
• Finished B.B. (before baby): Yes!  With the yarn being perpetually out of stock it was a near thing, though…
• Relative difficulty & PITA: 4/10.  Figuring out a new (excellent) pattern and the delay waiting for yarn were the only wrinkles in an otherwise lovely experience.
• Pattern Used: Spin Your Granny Square by Stitched Up Craft, available on Ravelry and Etsy.  I can’t say enough good things about this pattern – if you buy only one crochet pattern, let it be this one.
• Yarn Used: Paintbox Simply DK in Paper White, Blush Pink, Peach Orange, Banana Cream, Pistachio Green, Washed Teal and Dusty Rose.

I’d been eyeing the “Spin Your Granny Square” (SYGS) pattern for a while, since I have a granny square UFO (UnFinished Object – geeky textile slang ha!) that’s been sitting around since 2013.  Looking for new inspiration, I came across Stitched Up Craft’s pattern, laboriously re-drew my plan for that blanket, and then promptly forgot about it.  Again.

But that’s okay, because our last baby of 2020 (so far) brought it back to my attention.  Reaching out to dad-to-be, he shared a picture of their rainbow themed nursery, and I was thrilled to find a rainbow pattern to match.  (Because, remember, it isn’t all about me, but some of it definitely is.)  The SYGS pattern showcases some fantastic rainbow blankets, and it was pretty much a done deal after that.

This pattern allows for “joining as you go” – the jargon for attaching granny squares throughout the process instead of making some 70-odd squares and then tackling how to turn them into a blanket.  It also makes for some singularly lovely WIP imagery as the rows take shape diagonally.

Really, the only challenge in the process was that I didn’t order enough of the white yarn, and as you might expect, that yarn was then out of stock for over a month.  When I finally saw it back in stock and gleefully placed an order, it arrived…and lo and behold, I ordered the WRONG yarn.  Right color, wrong yarn.  Funny, right?  Not exactly.

There were so many firsts in this blanket.  New yarn (and new experience of not being able to just run out to the craft store and get more).  New pattern.  New color palette.  New baby and new family, since this is mom-and-dad-to-be’s first.

The process of making their blankey really cemented for me why I so enjoy making baby blankets.  Liminal spaces like birth are so strong that they’re one of the places in modern American life where we still feel drawn to ritual, where we are in contact with the divineness and wholeness of being.  It’s one of the spaces where our village, whatever form that takes for us, comes together to support the heroes stepping into that next moment.  Because we recognize the step is so big, so far into the unknown, that people need to be (symbolically or practically) held up and carried through, as much as they need to walk their own path.  To participate in that – as the weaver, the artist, the grandma-aunt-crone who has the time and the knowledge to MAKE within this sacred moment – well, that’s powerful stuff.

I do it because I WANT people to ooh and aah and tell me how good I am.  Of course I do.  But I also do it because it seems to me a very needed act of grace in these life milestones, for someone to spend TIME, stitch by stitch, thinking about and praying about the process that’s unfolding.  And putting some more love out there in our collective consciousness.

Thankfully, there are a lot of these acts of kindness out there in the world, taking all shapes and forms.  Paying for the coffee of the person behind you in line is a spell no less valuable in adding to someone’s joy or comfort.  I’m drawn to people’s kindness, their thoughtfulness, when they reach out to someone.  Perhaps that’s why these baby blankets have loomed so large in my journey this year.  In the absence of closeness, hug-to-hug connection, our gestures are so important.

This was the first blanket where I made a real effort to track time.  A friend and I clocked one square at about 15 minutes, meaning the squares themselves took about 16½ hours.  With joining and borders, this was probably a 20-25 hour project, which is pretty reasonable for my speed and skill level.

And that wraps up this miniseries!  I hope you’ve enjoyed a peek Beneath the Blankey this week.  It’s been so fun for me to reminisce over each of these objects and share them with you.  Sending you all my best wishes for the rest of this year as we head into snuggly blankey weather.

With love, Nikki