Baby Blanket Project

I finished my baby blanket just in the nick of time, the day after my gorgeous new nephew was born. I already knew the baby was a boy and chose the colours accordingly. 

I told Nicky from Thread Collective what I wanted to weave and she recommended Venne Organic 8/2 cotton. I'm so glad I went with it, it may be a little more expensive, but for good reason! It is soft but I didn't have a single broken warp thread, it was strong and just lovely to weave with. 

I warped with the royal blue. I'm not sure why, but I started discovering errors from this point on. Too many distractions perhaps?

Error 1: I missed a part of the threading sequence in one spot. 

The fix: I had missed threading 3 heddles, so I made the missing heddles out of tapestry cotton and inserted them in place. Then, I measured out the missing warp threads, threaded through my string heddles, and weighted them over the back of the loom. Not ideal, but it worked!

The weighted threads.

Error 2: I re-sleyed the reed 3 times (yes, 3!!) because I kept missing a slot or doubling up. This was really frustrating as I just wanted to get weaving at this point. Even after the 3 re-sleys, I still ended up with one slot doubled up with threads. So, the blanket has a fault running through vertically. Rather than go back and re-sley again, I decided to just live with it!

 My idea for weaving was to experiment with the weft, initially I thought I would do one shot of turquoise and one of green. I didn't like the way that looked though. I experimented further (this is why it's always great to warp a little extra for sampling) and decided on 3.5 inch stripes of blue, alternating with 1 inch stripes of green. It has a nice balance.

Here you can really see the hearts, aren't they cute?! This is one side.

And this is the other side. Originally I had planned to back the blanket with flannelette once it was off the loom, but in the end I couldn't decide which side of blanket I liked better, so no backing. It will be a light blanket instead :) 

You can find a copy of this draft here. It is also pinned to my Weaving board on Pinterest. 

The weaving draft is very easy to follow, both the threading and treadling follow repetitive, simple to memorise sequences.

The dimensions of the finished blanket are:

Width - 27.5"

Length- 44"

The approximate cost of the project:

I used almost a whole 250 gram cone for warp. For the weft, I alternated between the turquoise and green cones, using less of the green. I estimated the total cost at around $55AUD, which covers the threads, postage cost on the threads, sewing supplies and label.

What I learned:

*I don't work well with deadlines. On one hand, needing to be finished by a certain date is a good motivating factor but on the other hand, rushing causes stress and mistakes. 

*I learned that I definitely want to work with Venne organic cotton again.

*I would also like to use this draft again and I think it could be adapted to all sorts of projects. 

*I already knew this, but this project reminded me that weaving with quality threads is expensive!

*Perhaps most importantly, I learned that, once again most mistakes or errors in weaving are totally fixable if you can just find or think of a work around.

If you are interested in floor loom weaving or are a newbie floor or table loom weaver, be sure to check out my Introduction to Floor Loom Weaving course to get you up and weaving!

This pattern draft is not from a book, but if you love to weave baby blanket's, I recommend 

Hand Woven Baby Blankets by Tom Knisely.

There is a huge selection of blankets, from 2 to 8 shafts and many different yarns and colours. It's a lovely and inspiring book. Please note, this is an affiliate link, meaning I get a small commission if you purchase through this link, but I do actually own and love this book.