Thursday, March 8, 2012

Bless My Cotton Stocks

My cleaning up and clearing out continues - though, to be honest, the more I clean up and clear out, the more untidy the house looks as a result. Things are standing around in nice little piles, waiting to be removed to more permanent homes. In this period of transition, I decided to finally start working my way through the skeins of cotton I had so thoughtfully bagged and labelled sometime last year when I was obviously so bored, or reluctant to do housework, that arranging yarn by colour in zip lock bags kept me occupied for an evening.

Baby blanket number one -


And, this one, which is a bit crazier but more interesting to make:


I think the squares in the second blanket need a bigger border to offset the colours of the cotton. Hmmm. I need to rearrange the squares for a more harmonious mixture, but that's not all ... Something's not quite right. Any helpful suggestions or general musings welcome!

P.S. I'll pass on your reassurances to the husband that baby-holding just requires a bit of practice. Thank you very much!

14 comments:

Anny said...

Yes placing granny squares is like playing chess...hmmm what about move square 3rd row after gap into gap and make a square with a darker ring in it to replace it! And at least the baby didn't vomit on hubby because then he will never touch them again!! :)

Miss Mac said...

I think the borders on the second one are just fine. Once everything is pieced together it will come out very pretty. I love both of them. Very nice work!

Sweet Seahorse said...

The second one is a bit of an eyeful. An extra round of cream on each could work, but alternating a completely colourless (ie cream) square with a coloured one could be effective too.
xXx Helen

Karen said...

I actually like the second one.

If you were going for toning down of colors, you could make alternating squares in a solid color (like a pink or blue depending on the recipient)... of course then you would be bored of the bland... ah, the dilemmas of yarn!

Good luck
Blessings
Karen

Kelly said...

What about picking a second border colour, like green or orange? Just one row around each square maybe in a single crochet and then another row of off white. Then join.

Anonymous said...

My personal opinion (and you know what they say about those) is that you're right on about the shuffling. Lots of lights and yellow in the top row, disperse it more. It's beautiful though!

Marie/Underground Crafter said...

I love them both, but agree that the crazy one is more interesting.

ハンナ Kyoto and Japanese Language Explorer said...

Maybe get rid of 1 colour row, (4 instead of 5) and make 2 rows white. That and simple 5cm wide white border of the blanket would 'calm it down'. Good luck! Hanna /UK

Chain Stitch Crochet said...

Just a suggestion but how about putting the darker squares on the outside of the blanket, maybe in the corners? I love them both. :o) Happy Friday!

Erica said...

I agree with Miss Mac, the borders are perfect. I personally think that you should mix the colors up a little better: mix the brighter squares and the darker squares so they are more balanced.

Sue said...

I love your colourful squares, like you said just a little shuffle round and I think they'll look just fine!

love2stitch said...

I personally would increase the neutral border by 1 or 2 rows for the second one. I imagine it will make the individual colours pop more. Right now it looks as if they are taking the lime light away from each other which is a shame.
Love all you blankets.

Emily said...

I think a wider border would do the trick- I'll try find a photo I have somewhere of a blanket which had wide white/cream borders with a mad splash of colour in the middle. It looks just fab. xx

Unknown said...

I would use brown or tan to bring the colors together. I love all your work!