This blanket was done for a friend’s baby whose gender was unknown until her birth. I had decided to do the Afghan of the Sandman again, in white this time so that it would be gender-neutral (I did it in blue before). When Jenna was born and I got the call, I bought some red ribbon to girl-ify her blanket.

I had originally planned to just thread the ribbon through the border, but I’d tried that before with Bug’s blanket and found it to be a choking hazard. So after a bit of trial-and-error, I found an alternative that just thrills me! I slip-stiched the ribbon around the posts of a single crochet row in the border. It is gorgeous, and totally secure with no way to be pulled loose.

Very few people leave their baby’s gender a surprise till birth anymore, but for those that do, I think this will become my standby plan: create a blanket in a neutral color and then embellish with ribbon if the baby turns out to be a girl!

This was crocheted with Bernat Softee Baby white sport yarn, size H crochet hook.

Click the picture to see detail

I accidentally used the worsted weight Caron Simply Soft on this blanket, but now that it’s done I love the weight. I was glad that I’d used a no-dye-lot yarn because at the last minute I had to go out and buy just one more skien to finish it. Because I’d used the wrong weight, all the measurements did not fit what the directions indicated, so I ended up just continuing it until it was about the length I wanted, then moving on to the border. It worked just fine.

I love it. So many hopes and sorrows and tears and prayers are woven into every stitch. Holding this blanket, laying it across my lap, snuggling it against my face, they all raise such a complicated soup of emotions within my heart. As beautiful as it is now in its just-completed state, I pray that someday I will see it matted and worn from many trips through the washing machine and much love from a small boy.

Update: I’ve done this again in white, then embellished it with ribbon to make it more feminine.

Did I mention that we have about 300 square feet of this grimy vinyl between the kitchen and breakfast room? That’s a bit too much Cinderella for me, even with all my romantic sensibilities.

My dear husband listened to my wailing and saw my gnashing of teeth. Instead of just listening to my feelings, like we wives often plead, he did try to fix my problem. He suggested the following: Take the regular pad off the Swiffer and set the Swiffer head down on top of the Scotch-brite pad. Use a product designed for scouring (none of the usual Pine-sol or Fabuloso, something more like Top Job) tubs and sinks and tile. Spray it on, smear it around and let it sit a few minutes, then try Swiffer-ing it with the scouring pad.

It worked like a charm. I followed these instructions exactly and was absolutely delighted to see all the grime release easily, and the Swiffer made it simple to get under the eaves of the cabinets and into corners. The Top Job did require me to go back over it with a wet mop because it’s designed to be rinsed off, but I consider that an easy requirement for the results I got. I will not need to use this method every time I mop, but perhaps twice a year or whenever I perceive the need for deep-cleaning.

Sometimes that husbandly drive for just solving the problem can be a real blessing.

For more Works-For-Me-Wednesday tips, visit Rocks in my Dryer.

Cranberry Almond Granola

In a mixing bowl, combine

5 c oats
1 c coarsely chopped almonds
1/3 c wheat germ
2/3 c grape nuts cereal
1/2 c puffed brown rice (or rice krispies)
1/2 c unsalted sunflower seeds
Other goodies (flax seed, coconut, whatever you like)

In a saucepan, whisk

2/3 c apple juice concentrate
1/3 c vegetable oil
1/2 c maple syrup or honey
1/4 c brown sugar
1 t vanilla extract

Heat until simmering, whisking occasionally. Remove from heat, then add

1 T cinnamon
1/2 t salt

Pour over oat mixture and stir to coat. Then dump into a pan lined with foil and bake 15 minutes at 350. Stir, bake 15 minutes more. Continue until mixture is aromatic and a toasty brown. Cool and add 1 c dried cranberries.

Total cost: Just under $7 for a very full gallon ziplock bag.

Soon to come: Recipes for Honey-Toasted Pecan Granola and Peanut Butter Granola

My husband’s love language is “meatloaf.” Somehow Dr. Chapman saw fit to not include this language and recipe in his popular books, so I’ve had to figure it out on my own. I now have several different meatloaf recipes that I cook up on occasion, especially when E has had a tough work week or is otherwise in need of encouragement. Doozer scarfs meatloaf like he hasn’t eaten in weeks, and the girls enjoy it with plenty of “cap-it” (ketchup) or pasta sauce.

Italian meatloaf, serves 6

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 lb Italian sausage
• 1 c pasta sauce
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1.5 c oatmeal
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp Italian seasoning
• 2 tbsp dried minced onion
• 3 tsp beef bouillon
• Shredded mozzarella

Mix all ingredients and shape into a loaf. Bake at 350 for one hour. After removing it from the oven, sprinkle it generously with shredded mozzarella and let melt. Serve slathered with more pasta sauce.

Garlic zucchini pasta, serves 3

• 3 medium zucchini, chopped
• olive oil
• 3 tsp minced garlic (or to taste)
• 8oz spaghetti, cooked to al dente

Heat 1 to 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the garlic in a skillet over medium heat. Saute the garlic a few minutes. Add zucchini, reduce heat and cover, stirring occasionally until zucchini are tender. Add the drained pasta and salt to taste, stir and toss until the oil is absorbed into the pasta. Serve.

This makes a very thick batter and looks like it’s too much for just 12 muffin cups, but it will fit. They rise up to make beautiful crowns. They’re fabulously delicious, and are very well paired with a glass of milk.

Pumpkin walnut muffins

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1.5 cups white sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoons ground cloves
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoons ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 c chopped walnuts
• 1 can pumpkin puree
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 3 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease 12 muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.

2. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and salt. Then stir in walnuts.

3. In a separate bowl, beat together 1 can pumpkin puree, vegetable oil and eggs.

4. Stir pumpkin mixture into flour mixture until smooth. Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups.

5. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

And no more worries about where all these blankets-in-progress are going to go, as we’ve just discovered that we have TWO new babies due in the family! My older brother and his wife are expecting their second in March, and E’s older brother and his wife are due with their fifth in January!

I have been visiting the Crochet Garden site for awhile, but never purchased any of the patterns because I’m always fighting my “stashing” tendencies. (This is the compulsion to purchase materials, patterns and books for “the stash” simply because they’re beautiful or soft or a terrific color or on sale… even if I’m not intending to use them in the near future.) But now I finally purchased her Afghan of the Sandman pattern, because I loved the decidedly not-girly baby blanket. Here was a blanket I could happily wrap around a baby boy without worrying it would be too feminine, like so many crochet patterns. It is working up quickly, because the blanket body is one stitch motif repeated and the turning at the ends is super-simple. I’d classify it with “mile-a-minute” patterns. I’m making the child’s size, with Caron Simply Soft worsted weight in light country blue and an H-hook.

Haven’t decided if I’ll give it to Doozer, or to the next friend who has a baby boy, or save it for the next time we have a boy.

(Confession: I did also buy the Fairy Rainfall afghan pattern and the yarn in which to work it, so I could make a feminine blanket in case our next kiddo is a girl. )

Updated: Finished blanket here, and another blanket of the same pattern but embellished for a girl here.

It used to have a white satin ribbon running through the holes, joined at a corner with a beautiful girly bow, but she pulled it out like a drawstring so often it made my paranoid self afraid she’d choke on it, so I removed it. I made it for her just before she arrived, when I had just discovered how to add crochet edging to fleece. It worked up significantly more quickly than Lou’s blankie, which was entirely crocheted (and done while I was in college and had much more free time), and thus became my new favorite baby gift to give. I like to buy the fleece generously-sized, then take a marker and go along the edge with a ruler and place a dot about 1/4 inch in from the edge, every 1/4 inch along the edge. Then I go back and poke holes in the dots with a large seam-ripper, taking care to make sure the holes are large enough for the crochet hook I plan to use. This is the tedious part, and I’ve heard one can serge the edge of the fleece to create the initial chain upon which to crochet, but I don’t have a serger. I’d like to try it with an overcast zigzag stitch on my sewing machine sometime to see if I could achieve similar results, because it would be much quicker.

Then I just start crocheting in the holes, with a single crochet to start and doing three single crochets in each corner hole. I’ve also done one where I punched the holes further apart and did a shell in each, for the base of the edge, and it came out well too. For this particular blanket I wanted a less-frilly edge because we didn’t know Bug’s gender before she arrived, so I did a picket-fence type edge. This was achieved by the following pattern:

Base – single crochet all around (3 singles in each corner hole)

Row 1 – repeat 2 double crochet and 1 chain, (2 double, 3 chain, 2 double in each corner)

Row 2 – single crochet in each chain below, then in the first double do a single crochet, then do three chains, then single crochet in the next double. This creates the cute little top of the picket fence.

This was the first time I learned that you can fudge things a little bit with blanket edgings. I did not calculate the exact number of holes I’d need for this particular edge. When I’d get to the end of a row where I needed to fit two stitches and there was only room for one, I would squeeze the two into the same spot, or I would undo a few stitches and squeeze the extra stitch in with another a few inches back. What I’ve learned is that the overall beauty of the blanket is absolutely not affected by a little well-placed fudging. And now, after three years of countless trips through mud puddles and potty accidents and drips and drool and the washing machine, the blanket is just as beautiful. And I didn’t even remember that I’d fudged it a little until I went to write up this pattern.

Materials to gather/purchase:

• Blank onesies
• Small embroidery hoop
• Embroidery needle
• Embroidery floss in your colors
• Water-soluble sewing marker
• Lightweight tear-away stabilizer
• Soft fusible interfacing

First, you must put together the design you wish to embroider. For baby onesies, the possibilities are many: Baby Face, Punkin, Sweet Pea, Little Prince, Miracle, or whatever nickname the parents use. I plan to make a “Doozer” shirt for my son at some point. I searched the Microsoft Clipart Gallery for a suitable picture and downloaded it to my computer. I then opened up the clipart in photo editing software and toggled the saturation to zero and fiddled with the brightness and the contrast until I had reduced it to a black and white line drawing, suitable for tracing.

Next, I chose and downloaded a cute font from DaFont. In the editing software, I created a text box beneath the clipart and wrote in my words. Now it is ready to be traced onto the onesie.

Here are my designs, feel free to use them!

Now, find the top center of the front of your onesie (where you want the design to go) and mark it with the marker. Place your embroidery hoop over the mark so that the fabric is stretched over the back of the hoop (not the front like when you’re ready to begin stitching). Then lay it flat against the computer screen and line up your mark on the fabric with the center of your design. You may have to zoom in or out in the computer program to get the design to be the correct size for your project, and you may have to increase the brightness of your screen. When it’s the right size and is centered, carefully trace the design onto your fabric with the water-soluble marker.

Remove the hoop and replace it on the onesie, with the stabilizer behind the fabric and both stretched over the front of the hoop. Now you’re ready to embroider your design! And the best place to start is Needle’NThread’s video library of stitches, an incredibly helpful resource!

When done, gently wash the onesie or just rinse with water to remove the marker lines. When dry, apply fusible interfacing to the back of the design, to prevent any loose threads from tickling the baby.There are other transfer methods for using your own designs, like printing on transfer paper and ironing it on, but I found that for a simple design, this method is cheaper, faster and easier. There are also many books to buy that have designs ready to iron-on.