Woodland Friends Baby Blanket

Prior to COVID during one of Mary Maxim's sales I bought some of their crochet baby afghan kits and put them away in a closet thinking at some point I'd need a baby blanket and while I have patterns sometimes getting the yarn to match can be time consuming. I pulled out the Woodland Friends kit found here last Spring and started working on it a few rows at a time. In July I realized finishing for an expected August baby required more commitment so I pushed ahead and finished it and mailed it off.

I ended up using a J hook to make guage for this blanket. I used yarn bobbins that I pick up when I can find them at local craft stores or online when I need those last items to make free shipping. They are stored in a plastic child's pencil box which are really inexpensive to find this time of year if you shop the back to school sales. I have lots of my crochet items stored in those little pencil boxes as they are easy to transport and cheap to buy if you get them in the fall.

This kit uses Mary Maxim's Starlette yarn and I've had mixed experiences with this yarn. The yarn tends to shed and I may have just received a few bad skeins but some of the yarn split making it more challenging to use. I've used Starlette for some of their doll kits and an ami kit and its been fine which is why I mention it could just have been a run of the yarn.

The directions are chart for this pattern were great. Despite my comments about how much easier it is to have the yarn provided I'd prefer to shop for the yarn for this project and find a brand I know won't split.