My Emiline. Living. Kids. Crafts.: Heirloom Blankets

When I was 7 months pregnant with William, we moved to Biloxi, Mississippi (from New York City--BIG change!), I wasn't working, didn't know anyone, and it was the end of summer, so it was extremely hot and humid and so I was stuck in a 2 bedroom apartment all by myself everyday while Peter was working. Needless to say, I was pretty bored! So . . . I bought myself a sewing machine and some crochet hooks and yarn and started teaching myself to sew and crochet! Turns out I loved doing both, and they grew into a couple of my favorite hobbies.

I watched a bunch of youtube videos learning different crochet stitches and I scoured craft blogs looking for projects to try. Through this process, I found the blog Meet Me at Mike's, which is the most charming blog! And on that blog, I found Pip's series on how to crochet a granny square. And this is where my heirloom afghan project all started!

As my very first crocheting project, I decided to make a granny square afghan for my soon-to-be-born baby boy. I wanted it to be full-sized, so, rather than a baby blanket, I decided that it would become an heirloom--something that we would use as a family over the years and that he would get one day when either he goes off to college, on a mission, or when he gets married. I haven't really decided yet, but he'll get it at some point :) Anyway, I continued to work on the afghan after he was born; I would crochet every time I nursed him and it became a sweet routine. I decided that I would do this with each of my children, and so far I've kept up the tradition!

For Clara, my experience was just as special as it was for William, but for different reasons. Peter was deployed for the majority of my pregnancy with Clara, and so I would spend my free time and evenings, after Will was in bed, crocheting Clara's blanket. This became a comforting project--it gave me something to do and helped me from thinking about being lonely or missing my husband. And so, because I had so much time to myself to work on it, her afghan became especially large :) I finished it not long after she was born during nursing sessions as well.

I used this Speed Hook Shell pattern for Clara's afghan. Although, I used a smaller hook and made the pattern much tighter.

And now I'm working on baby boy #3's blanket. It's been fun each time to choose different patterns and colors that I'm hoping the children will like and that I'll still like in 20 years. But even if the colors go out of style, these blankets will always be special to me because they'll remind me of special times of carrying and nursing my little ones as babes. Hopefully my kids will think they are just as special and they'll keep them as heirlooms for their own children one day!