I was thinking of making a baby blanket for a co-worker who's due in a week, and I mentioned it to someone, and somehow word has gotten around that I am halfway finished with it! Of course. So now I pretty much have to do it. It probably would be better knit but I haven't learned to do that yet, so I guess I'm going to try to crochet it.

Does this seem reasonable? Should I just do it all at once, or maybe make a bunch of squares and then sew them together? Since I want it to look halfway decent (unlike the scarves and hats I make which are kinda wanky-looking (which only adds to their charm)) I want to start off doing it the best way.

Thanks!

If you want to use a pattern, these look like they might work up pretty quick (although I've never tried any of them):
>http://www.jpfun.com/patterns/13kids/8hrafghn.shtml
>http://www.yarncat.com/babygrannyblanket.html
>http://www.lionbrand.com/cgi-bin/lionbrand/index.fcgi?page=http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/cja-cray.asp
>http://www.angelfire.com/tx5/angelcrafts/roundripple.html

I am currently working on this pattern for adults, but there are instructions for baby blankets... it's quite easy and fun!:
>http://home.att.net/~susanBinKC/ripple.html

Well, I can't tell from your post if you already know how to crochet...but if you're a beginner and not up on following patterns, you can just buy a nice yarn and make a blanket with stripes, using the same stitch the whole way through. Adding a border would be nice too. My first crochet project this past summer was a baby blanket made this way, and it came out nicely.

cg

thanks for all the suggestions. i saw the "pound of love" one too but i thought if i made a blanket without a hood, they could keep using it after the kid got older and didn't want to look like a little elf anymore :)

i think i'm going to just make it one color but learn some fancier stitches and try to make a border, which i've never done before. i got some nice peachy baby yarn (don't know if it's a boy or a girl yet) so i'm going to start tonight!!

Knitting would take much longer than crochet anyway. If you're on a tight deadline stick with crochet.

As for doing it in squares or all at once, it's up to you. If you do squares, it's more portable to take around, if you do it all at once, no need to sew them together.

There is an afghan at the Lionbrand site that is done on the diagonal. It goes pretty quickly, so I'm told. You can always combine two or more strands of baby yarn to increase the rate at which you finish.
>http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/chs-diagonalBabyBlanket.html

I'm making a baby afghan right now. I bought the Lion's brand Pound of Love yarn, the pattern is on there, seems very simple. It's a small afghan with a little hood on one corner (basically a triangle that's overlayed on the corner)
It's taking me a while though, so you would have to work a lot on it to get it done quickly (not that I'm working on it that much right now) It's a pretty solid pattern stitch too, which is probably taking time
cheers,
jo