March 27, 2013
Brinley’s Blanket was part of a tradition I had to make each of my children a blanket sometime around the time they turned 4 or 5. As all crafters know, there are times you have a lot of time to craft, and times you have NO time to craft. The age my kids received their blanket depended on the time I had available to work on it.
I picked around age 4-5 to make it for them because that was around the age they could voice their favorite color choices and help decide what they wanted. Then they could see me stitching and know it was something special just for them. Their excitement when it was finished was all the more because they had watched it being made.
Brinley’s blanket took me from January 30, 2013 until March 27, 2013 to complete, so that poor girl had to be so patient for it!! But she still uses it today, 8 years later, so I guess it was worth the wait.
*This post may include affiliate links that I can earn a small commission from if you shop through them at no additional cost to you. Think of it as another way to help support my small business. ☺️ Please see my full disclosure for more information.*
Pattern Details:
The pattern I used for this project was the Rainbow and Hearts Blanket by Bethany Scofield. I did make several pattern notes while making this because I ran into a few issues while trying to make it. I will share those notes a little later in case you struggle with the same things I did.
Brinley’s Blanket = Brinley’s yarn choices:
As I stated above, the children got to pick the colors and help me select the pattern for their blankets. Brinley chose the following colors:
Lion Brand Pound of Love in the Colorways:
Antique White
Pastel Pink
Bubblegum Pink
Lavendar
Other good yarn choices to use to make this would be Vanna’s Choice, Caron Simply Soft Party, and Red Heart Soft. I recommend any of these. I’m including an Amazon link below to find a few yarn choices there. A few other places to check out yarn are Knit Picks (I will post some colorways for this company below) and Create For Less websites.
Knit Picks Yarn Options Below
Hooks and Tools for Brinley’s Blanket
If you are just starting your stitching journey, chances are you don’t have tools yet. I highly recommend doing your research and reading reviews to figure out what you like best. I will include my recommendations, but definitely read and find what works best for you.
My favorite brand of hooks to use are the Knit Picks brand. They are so beautiful and well made. My collection includes a wood set of the crochet hooks as well as a padded handle set. I love them both!
Additionally I have a cute little set from Amazon that I love too. You can buy this one fairly inexpensively and it comes with some tools and notions that will be helpful too. Several buying options to choose from and I don’t think you can go wrong with any of them. 🙂 I even have the light up set pictured below and I think it’s kind of awesome. I love that it’s rechargeable! Again, be sure to do your research and read the reviews. If you buy a good set of hooks it’s likely you will never need to buy another set again, or at least not for a very long time. Doing your homework to make sure you are making a sound purchase is always a good idea.
Additional Tools for when your wrists and/or hands ache
Stress relief gloves are a must have if you knit and/or crochet a lot. I own a few different kinds. They are very useful if your hands and wrists are bothering you. I’ll include a few links for you to check out.
Feel like you need a little more help?
Maybe you’re completely new to crocheting and don’t know how to do it at all. I taught myself a lot of how to knit and crochet through a kit. I posted a link to one that is similar to what I bought years ago below from amazon. There are also a LOT of online resources that can help you, such as Annie’s online classes I’m posting below. You can also find your local yarn store and check out what they have available. There are almost always options there to learn.
Brinley’s Blanket Notes:
Finally, here are the few little notes and tips I took for myself when I stitched this pattern:
- Every row will end in the shell. Never in a sc. The note she has for the color change for the sc is for the hearts. This is NOT for the end of the rows.
- For the heart: you will never cut the dark pink yarn, but you will cut the light pink yarn every time. For the first row of the heart, when working with the light pink, stitch over the dark pink and just pick the dark pink up again at the other side of the heart.
- On line 3, where it says in the second line “at the end of this shell”, pull the dark pink through the last 2 loops of the light pink to finish the shell. Really, for EVERY color change, you will be picking up the new color and pulling it through the last 2 loops of the previous color.
A few more notes about hearts and “leave some slack”:
- On the second part of the heart making, line 5 and 6. Do NOT work over the dark pink for this part, but also do NOT cut it. You will not cut the dark pink color at all in the making of the light pink hearts. You will cut the light pink yarn every time (unless as I continue on I figure out a way to do that too).
However, the dark pink will NOT be cut at any time. When you switch to the light pink yarn, just drop the dark pink yarn, but do NOT crochet over it. What she means by “leave some slack in the dark pink strand” is that you will work all the light pink stitches, then you will pick back up the dark pink yarn in the last 2 loops of the last shell. When you do, don’t pull it too tightly but leave a little slack. It should lay over the light pink stitches that you just made. This is so that when you work the next row of dark pink, you will stitch over that slack yarn to hide it. Therefore you can save yourself the time of cutting it for each heart and leaving it to weave later.
Brinley’s Blanket Wrap up:
I have no idea if this is how the pattern was intended to be worked, but this is how it worked for me. If anyone reads this and has any questions, please ask. I’m not used to making pattern notes for others. However I had to pull out a . few rows of this at a time on the heart making rows. This was VERY time consuming. If I can help anyone else save some time, I would love to try. Just message me and I will try to help. I needed to make the notes for myself anyway. If I ever attempt this blanket again I will have the notes. This will help me remember without going through all the same confusion.
That should be about all you need if you want to try this one out. Please let me know if you have any questions or need any help. Make sure to check out the links at the end of this post for Christian Strong. You can save 10% off your first order with the coupon code: REF10OFF
Happy Stitching!
🧶💖
~Mindy~
