Weaving for Babies
I know some of you will already know why I love this blankie sooo much. My youngest son Daniel was given such a blankie when he was born, soft, luscious and always there to wrap him in love and warmth. He always wanted to know where ‘she’ was when he was little. (I was given permission to make this public knowledge :^). Blankie doesn’t look quite this good anymore but even though she’s been washed and thrown in the dryer about 10 million times, she’s hangin’ in there.
We thought it only fitting to put blankie into a pattern for other schnookums in our lives – especially now that I’m an absolutely delighted grandmother!
Canvas Weave Baby Blankie
Level of Difficulty: Beginner
Weave structure: 4 shaft canvas weave
Material: Monte Cristo cotton & 8/4 cotton
Each kit makes: 1 blanket
Loom requirements: Shafts: 4
Weaving Width: 35″
Reed: 12 dent
Each kit includes: Weaving instructions (including draft)
1 1lb cone of Monte Cristo cotton, 1 cone 8/4 cotton in nile, 1 cone 8/4 cotton in periwinkle
We can make this kit in any colour we have in stock! Check here to make sure we have your colour in stock then simply, put the Canvas Weave Baby Blanket kit into your cart, on the checkout screen in the “notes” section let us know what colours of 8/4 cotton you would like us to make the kit in.
Monte Cristo Baby Blankie
Level of Difficulty: Beginner
Weave structure: Plain Weave
Material: Monte Cristo cotton
Each kit makes: 1 blanket
Loom requirements:
Shafts: 4
Weaving Width: 35″
Reed: 8 dent
Each kit includes:
Weaving instructions (including draft)
1 1lb cone of Monte Cristo cotton
We are so lucky to have Sharon Broadley on our team of creators. She always shares her amazing talents so generously, sharing patterns with us for our ongoing Maiwa Foundation fundraising, weaving for our show and tells in the School of Weaving and this time an extremely special blog post. Sharon and I have both become first time Nana’s this year and as all you Nana’s out there know…..it is a very special moment in our lives. If only I could have done this for my little Freya…..but she knows she is loved and thank goodness I have time ahead to create some lovely things for her.
I know you will enjoy Sharon’s post 🙂
If you would like to see more of Sharon’s weaving, give her a follow on Instagram @colour.woven.
Grandma Sharon’s Weaving for Baby
Once upon a time, a weaver found out she was soon to be a grandma. So she did what all good grandma-to-be weavers would do: she dusted off her loom, pulled all her yarn out of the cupboard, boxes and (ahem) from under the bed and began to plan what her new grandchild might need.
A couple of cotton bouclé hooded bath towels in rubber ducky colours were woven just like a regular tea towel using 12epi/12ppi except they are about 40 inches square on the loom. An extra 12 inches was woven to create the triangular hooded part. A quick trip to the fabric store ensured that the handmade binding coordinated well. The corners were rounded using a bowl as a template so that none of the binding would need to be mitered.
This grandma-weaver also had some leftover waffle weave fabric and some hand printed Maiwa cotton which were shouting to be put together so a vintage pattern was found. And because this stuffie ended up much larger than remembered from when she’d been a sister-crafter over 50 years ago, she renamed it a Pillowpotamus.
And then when she was told that this new baby would be a girl baby, the grandma-weaver was over the moon because, as all this grandma’s friends know, pink is her favourite colour.
Huck lace woven 41 inches square with two thirds of the warp in baby pink 8/2 organic cotton and the other third in cream organic cotton, playing with these two colours for 2 blankets and adding some other stripes for the 3rd. The sett is 16epi/16ppi.
Plain weave towels in the colours requested by the mom; added light stone grey and pistachio to the pink and cream. Some of these blankets were hemstitched off the loom and some had machine sewn hems. These blankets have become the go-to blankets for all things baby: swaddling, covering, drying, draping…
After weaving some samples on a very long warp and (finally) getting bored, re-sleyed to a narrower sett and made a series of smaller weavings that were planned as samples to refer back to but then, being in grandma-weaver mode, decided to make the best baby wash/spit-up/whatever cloths. The sheep was supplied by the new mom.
Finally, this grandma-weaver wants to share this knitted sweater she made for her first born which will now be worn by her granddaughter. Four children in the family have worn it so far and because my sister carefully wrapped it in acid free paper almost 30 years ago it looks brand new.
Oh and they all lived happily ever after.
The End.
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