{"id":12475,"date":"2020-07-16T12:43:24","date_gmt":"2020-07-16T19:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.tincanknits.com\/?p=12475"},"modified":"2020-07-16T12:43:24","modified_gmt":"2020-07-16T19:43:24","slug":"a-precious-blanket-repair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.tincanknits.com\/?p=12475","title":{"rendered":"A Precious Blanket Repair"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Blankets are unreasonable project<\/strong>s<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Blanket knitting is a unique thing. They are the biggest<\/em> knitted item I make. They take forever<\/em>. They take lots<\/em> of yarn. They can be a pain<\/em> to hand wash due to their size. But in spite of all of that, I love them. I especially love to knit them for babies. There’s something about a handmade blanket for a little one that’s so very special. This is the story of one such project:  Bodhi\u2019s baby blanket. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Bodhi’s original baby blanket.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Something all her own<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Bodhi is (and will always be) the baby, so she was destined to have an enviable wardrobe of hand-me-down sweaters from Hunter and Jones. But before I knew who she would become, I wanted to make something for her that would be all her own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I quickly decided on a Vivid blanket<\/a> \u2013 it’s been one of my favourites ever since Emily designed it. I went to my collection of Tanis Fiber Arts DK <\/a>and pulled out a fantastic rainbow of yarns. I adore bright, cheery colours for babies! Stitch by stitch, square by square, I made Bodhi her wee blanket, knitting a little bit of love into every inch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the big day came, I wrapped my new, little bundle in her bright blanket, and she has used it ever since. It has served as a play mat, a bedspread, a dolly swaddle, a fort…you name it! That blanket has received a lot of love and use over the years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
This is Bodhi, only a few hours on the outside. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Disaster <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Last year, to my dismay, I found the much loved blanket under Bodhi\u2019s bed with some mothy little holes in it. Nooooooooooooo!<\/em> I wasn’t ready to let this piece of her childhood go quite yet. I bagged and froze it to get rid of the pesky beasts, and then it was time to ponder the fix. Some of the squares had small holes in the edging; others had large holes in the lace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"I
This little lavender square got the worst of it. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In order to fix the blanket, I needed to take it apart. I carefully took out all the whip stitches that held the squares together and assessed each one for damage. I had to re-knit the garter edge on a few squares, and I ended up having to re-knit two squares entirely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s when I decided Bodhi’s baby blanket needed an upgrade. Since I had taken the whole thing apart anyway, it seemed like a good time to make it bigger and more suitable to the needs of a six-year-old. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
I’ve been ‘collecting’ Tanis Fiber Arts<\/a> yarn for about eight years now, and it shows! <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When I decided I would make Bodhi’s baby blanket bigger, I assumed it would only take a few more squares. (I swear I’m not usually that bad at math.) When I did the actual calculations, I realized I had a much bigger project on my hands. The original blanket was  4′ x 4′ with a total of 16 squares. Expanding it to 5′ x 6′ would require 30 squares. That’s an additional 14 squares \u2013 basically just like knitting a whole new blanket! But since I didn\u2019t do the math before I started, I was totally committed. An additional 14 squares were whipped up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"6-year-old<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Note: I recently noticed that I use the phrase ‘whipped up’ when referring to a piece of knitting. I think this is a personal delusion. Knitting is super slow. Nothing is really ever ‘whipped up.’ Lols.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bodhi
Bodhi showing off her new and improved big-girl blanket.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Satisfaction<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m so pleased to have given this blanket a little extra life. It’s now a permanent feature on Bodhi\u2019s bed (and still a popular addition to any blanket fort). It was such a joy to add those extra squares and play with the new colours I had acquired over the last five years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a decidedly different feeling knitting up squares for a human that was already in the world \u2013 a child with her own personality and quirks \u2013 someone I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know as she becomes herself. As it turns out, my original choice of a bright, cheery spectrum of colours was absolutely perfect for my rainbow-loving Bodhi, who is both bright and cheery herself. This labour of love was well worth the effort, and it brings me great joy to see these two little things I made grow together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

~ Alexa<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bodhi<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When disaster struck Bodhi’s beautiful baby blanket, I decided it was time for a repair and an upgrade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2474659,"featured_media":12945,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[191214,697557662],"tags":[321469261],"class_list":["post-12475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lace","category-our-knits","tag-vivid-blanket","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1z4ty-3fd","builder_content":"","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.tincanknits.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/img_1068.jpg?fit=2400%2C3600&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tincanknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tincanknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tincanknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tincanknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2474659"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tincanknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12475"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tincanknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13394,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tincanknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12475\/revisions\/13394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tincanknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tincanknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tincanknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tincanknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}