This is a gift I made for a girl at work who has left to have a baby. She was only with us for a few months but we got along really well and she made such a contribution that I felt I really wanted to make something nice to give her as a leaving gift.

I used the Li'l Monkey pattern from Stitch and Bitch – The Happy Hooker as a base but made plain granny squares, did 5 rows of 5 (instead of four rows of four), and added quite a wide border. All this was essentially because my yarn was finer than the one specified in the pattern.

I chose the yarn primarily on colour availability. It was pretty reasonably priced at around $3 or $4 per ball (I can’t exactly remember). Unfortunately I managed to throw out all the ball bands so I can’t tell you the brand. It is 8ply and cotton-y in texture, but very soft.

I’ve never made a baby blanket before but I quite enjoyed it. I crocheted some of the border in the car on the way to my mini-break in Margaret River which passed the time and allowed me to make good progress without getting too bored.

I love how it turned out. The colours are lovely and cheerful and it’s a pretty good size – about 65cm square.

I am now working on another blanket, this time for my stepsister-in-law. This blanket is a knitted one and is all in one piece. Aside from having a lot less ends to darn in, which is a plus, I am finding it quite tedious. I need to find:
a) some free time, and
b) a couple of lightweight dvds
so I can get over the hump on it!

Here's a close up on a few of the squares.