Dinosaur Baby Blanket

This was a much more difficult project than it should have been. I remember now why I prefer blankets that are made as one and not ones that need to be sewn together, but I really couldn't resist the idea of making a dino blanket to match a dino themed nursery. The challenge for me as always was getting the squares all to be the same size. With the added challenge of charted color changes this seemed to be more of an issue than I'd anticipated and I made several squares more than once until I got them to be the size needed.

I would have preferred a lighter weight yarn, but the original yarn was not available any longer and the bright colors were more challenging to find than I'd anticipated. All and all I'm pleased with this project. It went out last week and I hope it is one of those blankets that gets dragged around for years.

For those of you interested in the pattern you can purchase it here.

Dinosaur Afghan Block Number 1

While we were at the birthday party I made all those fun toys for I discovered there is another little one, a boy this time due in the fall to a different branch of the family. The baby's room is being decorated in dinosaurs. I have lots of dinosaur ami patterns having nephews who loved the creatures in their younger days, but what to do about a baby afghan?

Well I'm not normally crazy about sewing squares together and charts are also not a favorite of mine, but I found a dinosaur afghan pattern on e-pattern central here. If you have time have patience I suggest waiting for it to go on sale. It isn't included in all their sales, but about 3 weeks after I was gifted the pattern it was included in one of their sales at a drastically reduced price. I however, wasn't willing to wait as I know how long it can take me to order the yarn and add in the time to work on charts, I wanted maximum lead time.

Just a note for those of you who like to use the yarn listed, the yarn used for this pattern, Red Heart Kids is no longer available. I looked at Caron Simply Soft, but I couldn't get the colors to match the way I wanted too. You may feel differently. I settled on Bernat Super Value as my substitute yarn. I find yarn bobbins to be very useful on charted projects as I easily tangle my yarn. I know other people have solutions they prefer. My suggestion is do what works best for you.

I've been working on the blocks while trying to get doll donations done and block 2 is finished. I have to get the bobbins set up for block 3.