There’s a Baby Girl On The Way!

After a little break from baby arrivals, cousins RCL and NL recently announced that they’re expecting a BABY GIRL!

Bean (RL) has always been the honorary third sister, so you can imagine how excited I am to see her have her first little girl. Every year, for as long as I can remember, mom and dad would adopt Bean for the entire summer and the three of us (me, Sis and Bean) would spend our days terrorizing each other, watching Chinese vampire flicks, rollerblading around the neighborhood, playing mermaid in the pool, building campsites all over the house, etc. etc. Somehow without fail, she would arrive in Brooklyn (all the way from upstate New York or Delaware) minutes after schools closed for the Summer and would not return home until school was upon us again in the Fall (even when I’d plead with her to leave and despite my constant conspiring to get her mom to take her back). Over the years, our love/hate relationship turned to one of only love and I’ll always look back at those summers as the moments that defined my childhood.

So, when Bean told me she was expecting a little girl, I couldn’t wait to get started on making something as special as she is to me.

To start, I needed a little inspiration and turned to her registry. For the nursery, she had chosen a pink, white and gray color scheme and the following bedding set, which I used for inspiration for all the pieces I created.

With only two months to the baby shower, I knew I had to work fast and immediately began researching new patterns and designs. As always, I wanted to make something unique, mindful of the mommy-to-be’s style and different from items I previously made for others (see what I made for Baby O, Baby K and Baby C).

Supplies You’ll Need

Yarn: To create pieces that would compliment the decor of the nursery, I used pink, white and medium gray yarn. Generally, you will need four balls of standard yarn to complete a blanket, including any trim (because my design required more pink, I used 4 balls of pink, 1 ball of white, and 1 ball of medium gray). With the left over yarn, I made a few coordinating items – booties, mittens and baby beanie. To keep everything super soft, I used Bernat Softee Baby Yarn.

Tools & Crochet Hooks: I used a 5mm crochet hook for all of the items, including edges. You will also need a yarn needle to sew in the edges, and a good pair of craft scissors.

Pink, White and Gray Baby Afghan

The baby afghan would be the largest and most time consuming item to make, so I began with designing a pattern that would be visually interesting and full of texture although the blanket would remain primarily pink. I decided to mimic a quilt design (without having to sew separate pieces together) byalternating between two different crochet stitches – double crochet and raised rib stitch – in order to create the look of adjoining squares. To create the squares, I simply crocheted 15 stitches of the same stitch across before changing to a different stitch. Then I repeated the same stitches for 15 rows before alternating again. You can create a similar effect by using any two distinctly different stitches.

Here is the afghan before adding a finishing edge and trim.

I then added a white and gray stripe edge to the outer perimeter of the blanket, using a simple single crochet stitch.

Finally, I finished the blanket by adding a special touch with a wave border.

Pink, White and Gray Baby Beanie with Pom Poms

Pattern: To create the beanie, I followed a very simple beanie pattern with the same pink yarn and added three extra rows of stitching in white and gray to create a fold-over border to match the baby afghan. I then made two 2-inch pom poms in white to attach to the beanie.

Pink, White and Gray Baby Mittens

For the first time, I decided to make a pair of baby mittens. I never realized how important these little mitts were for preventing inadvertent scratches until Baby O was born. To create the fingerless mitts, I used pink yarn for the entire project and finished by adding a simple gray edge to be sure it coordinated with the other items. I then weaved a thin white ribbon into the cuffs of the mitts to create a little bow closure.

Pink, White and Gray Baby Booties

To complete the set, I made a coordinating pair of baby booties. Here is a super simple and helpful video.

Lastly, I couldn’t forget about the final presentation. So, I put everything together in a beautiful natural weave basket, added the cutest squishable stuffed animal and wrapped it all up in cellophane.