A new blanket for Wendy

I started making this blanket without a recipient in mind just because I had the yarn on hand and felt like using it because it is a very pretty colorway. (Originally I bought this yarn for a different project but then lost interest in that one.) And the Red Heart Ombre yarns lend themselves nicely to the Which Way Filet blanket pattern by Fiber Spider.

As the blanket was coming together I started to think that it might be a nice one for Wendy, since she's now a teenager and had outgrown the more "baby style" blanket I previously made her. This blanket pattern, with the limitless potential and endless possibilities suggested by its winding paths, is perfect for a brilliant teen like Wendy. 

My only worry was that I didn't know whether turquoise was a color that Wendy liked. But then I got to sit beside Wendy at dinner early in December, and I don't know how we got on the subject, but I was able to ask her what her favorite color was, and I was THRILLED when she said TURQUOISE!! Woo-hoo!! So now I know that she's going to love this new blanket.

I made her older sister a more grown-up-looking blanket last Christmas, and now it's Wendy's turn to get a new, grown-up-style blanket to last her for many years to come. Finished it just in the nick of time to give it to her for Christmas this year.

The Fairy Slippers Blanket free pattern

This free Fairy Slippers Banket pattern is a variation on the Which Way Filet blanket by Fiber Spider that works up quickly and easily from the center outward.

This Lion Brand Mandala yarn is soft and light, and the colorway is reminiscent of soft rainbow colors that would make a precious, cuddly keepsake blanket for a “rainbow baby.”

I had been hearing the term “rainbow baby” getting used a lot around knitting and crocheting circles, but I didn’t know what it meant, so I finally decided to look it up. According to Google, “A rainbow baby is a name coined for a healthy baby born after losing a baby due to miscarriage, infant loss, stillbirth, or neonatal death. The name ‘rainbow baby’ comes from the idea of a rainbow appearing in the sky after a storm, or after a dark and turbulent time.”

Which means that I am a rainbow baby myself, according to the modern parlance, because my mother delivered me after previously enduring seven miscarriages. I had no idea that I was born under this lovely, colorful label. Ha! 🌈

This filet blanket pattern is also ideal for a rainbow baby because the infinite paths winding and spiraling outward from the center symbolize the infinite potential contained within each new life.

This also means that maybe instead of giving away this baby blanket when it’s done I should just keep it for my rainbow-baby self. 😁 I could get another skein of this Honeydukes colorway, whip up another blanket just like this one, and then sew them together to make a nice and light but colorful, funky, and boxy rainbow poncho!

If I finish this as a baby blanket, I’ll edge it with 1 round SC followed by 1 round RSC. But if I keep this to be a poncho, I’ll end with 1 round SC before sewing the panels together.