Rubber Ducky Blanket

by Bev
(Bellingham, WA)

I don't think of myself as an artist, but I do love to crochet, so this is about as "artsy" as I get.
My mom tried teaching me when I was young, but to no avail. After growing up and having children of my own, my best friend was able to teach me in one evening. Ever since I have loved to crochet and I have made many, many blankets, a lot of them I have just given away.
My favorite baby blanket is this rubber ducky blanket. It is a time-consuming little masterpiece. It is actually the only one I believe worth calling a masterpiece, I guess.
It is a crocheted blanket and is made in 5 parts. The filleted blocks with the rubber ducky on them are all double stitches. Pretty simple to do, but requires attention to counting stitches.
The second part is all single stitches on the solid blocks. This, too, is very time consuming as just crocheting single stitches takes seemingly forever to get anywhere!
The third part is piecing them all together. Notice how I wasn't paying close enough attention to which way the rubber duckies were facing on that top first filleted block? He looks like the snobby one, looking away from all the others! To stitch them together requires more yarn and a big sewing needle. Just whip stitch them together.
The next step is stitching around the whole blanket to bring it all together with single stitches, double stitches, and triple stitches to create a lacy-look around the whole blanket.
The last step, I take some satin ribbon and weave it through the triple stitched row on the lacy part. It takes 4 strips, one weaved through on each side and then I tie them in a bow on the ends.
Three months later...I'm done! I made this one for my new grandson born here in Bellingham, WA in December. It took me through most of March to make as I can't just sit all day and crochet. I have made one of these for each of my 4 grandchildren and a few to close friends for their babies. It is a lot of work! I think I will probably only make these for my grand babies as they come for now on. My hands are getting old!