Stars and Hexagons

      When the twins were a few months old, I decided I wanted to make them blankets. It can get cold here in Texas, and even at a year old, they were still in their infant car seats. This meant a lot of carrying from the car to the house in the seats, and using those seats in the double stroller. So I wanted something that could be used in the car seats.

      I wanted a blanket that would be warm enough for while they were in the seats, but small enough to fit inside the seats without worrying about them being covered. I also wanted something beyond a standard square or rectangle.

     I went to Hobby Lobby and decided on color combos before I had patterns picked out. Sometimes colors lead to a pattern, sometimes a pattern leads to a color combo. You never know how inspiration will strike.

  I chose these two color combos:

And then I set out to find patterns.

I opted to make two different blankets, so I settled on a star for my first one. At this point I’d made simple rectangle blankets and hats. But nothing more involved than that. Never even a granny square. But it seemed easy enough, and pretty. So I picked out this pattern:

Star Blanket

And got to work.

Here is a great tutorial for the first few rows if the pattern is confusing, which it can be if you’re like me and want to see it “in person”

Tutorial

For the next one, I opted for a hexagon, again something I had never done before. I like a challenge. I chose this pattern:

Hexagon Blanket

And set out.

Overall it took me about 4 days to finish both blankets working on my lunch break and at night after the kids were in bed. They are not overly large, big enough to use in the car seats. We still use them in the car today. They are the perfect size for that.

Here they are after a year and some change in use, still holding up very well. This yarn washes wonderfully. I have had no fuzzing or pilling as can happen with some yarns. Yet another reason I love Hobby Lobby products!

They do lay flat I promise.