Babette Style Crochet Baby Blanket (With Free Pattern)

My friend is expecting her third baby soon. While I only have two girls, I remember there being a different kind of excitement surrounding my first birth. A shower thrown by friends, another with my volunteer organization. Gifts were mailed from friends out of state and we received cards, flowers, and phone calls of congratulations after her arrival. My second birth brought more practical help to the house with meals and childcare for our toddler, but far fewer gifts. Well, fewer gifts for the baby. My toddler made out like a bandit after Grammy's three week visit and a new toy nearly every day.

So, I could only imagine what kind of reception a third baby would receive, especially as a girl with two older sisters. I had been itching to craft something and found myself with a few spare moments at night after the kids were asleep, so I started a baby blanket.

I was inspired by several Babette Style blankets that I found on Pinterest. The patchwork design with varying sizes of multicolored crochet squares had a kind of whimsy about it that I thought perfect for a baby. I didn't seek out a pattern and instead drafted my own, assuming I would sort out how to make those half-squares and how it would all piece together. It was a labor of love, and I am so thrilled with how it turned out.

If you are inspired to create a similar blanket, here are my tips:

• Limit your yarn colors. I chose six that worked well together, I think that is the minimum you would want to use. Eight is probably the maximum. You could also do different shades of the same color for a more subtle look.
• Chose yarns of the same weight or, even better, from the same brand. This is important for a uniform look and feel. I used a medium 4 weight acrylic and I worked it with the recommended H-8 hook. It has a slight sheen and a softness that you don't normally get with crochet work.
• Start early and set a deadline. So often I start a craft project and never ever finish it. Sound familiar? I started this as soon as my newborn was sleeping a decent stretch in the evenings and set a deadline to be completely finished when my friend was just shy of eight months pregnant. I wanted some time to wrap it and give it to her before the baby arrived, and I wasn't sure where that would fit into her schedule. She's a busy momma too.

Here is the layout I created, which you are free to use. The finished blanket is about 2x3 feet and it's made from basic double crochet squares. This motif leaves you with an odd number of stitches on the outside of each square, so piecing it together was a bit trickier than just stitching one-to-one. I found it best to work the last three stitches of one corner and the first three stitches of the next corner over three stitches on the joining square. There is also a diagram on the layout to help this make sense.

I'm excited to gift this blanket to my friend, and even more excited to meet the beautiful baby for whom it was created.