Independent craft blog since 2007
Originally uploaded by JanGeisen
Jan Geisen recently uploaded this image to Flickr of her polymer clay pendent. Her work is really striking in the shades and textures that she is able to create with polymer clay. You can also find her work for sale in her Etsy shop.
Check out Flickr to be inspired to try and reach new levels with your own polymer work. She has worked in various different artistic fields which shows that it is never too late to master a craft if you put your mind to it.
While I was knitting this baby blanket, my husband was curious as to why I was knitting a baby blanket when there are no babies in the near future that we know of. (What we know is kind of relative since some friends told us they were adopting a couple of years ago with less than a month’s notice.)
I said, “well, I had the yarn.” Which is true. I bought a ball of Bernat Sport Ombre Twist yarn when JoAnn was closing and it seemed like just the thing to make a baby blanket.
And at more than 1,000 yards per skein, I figured a one-skein baby blanket would be a fun project to try.
It actually worked out perfectly, with the blanket coming out a good size. With the border it’s 36 inches/91.4 cm square, which is what I’m usually aiming for when I knit baby blankets but I rarely hit it because I also rarely check gauge for a baby blanket since it’s usable whatever size it is.
I had enough yarn to work the blanket and two rounds of single crochet as a border, with a few yards of yarn to spare.
If you don’t crochet you can leave off the border or do an applied I-cord or some kind of knit border, but you might need to use a contrasting yarn for that.
The blanket uses sand stitch, which is an easy knitting stitch that only uses knits and purls. It’s sort of stockinette on one side and alternating knits and purls on the other. There’s some debate as to which side of this stitch pattern is considered the front, but the good news is they both look good.
You can grab this free pattern over at Our Daily Craft. Stitch it up even if you don’t know of any babies coming soon. You never know, and it can always be a charity project if all else fails.