Tom Knisely - Handwoven Baby Blankets

Oh , Baby!

Windsor Sara Bixler

I ts instinctive to wrap a baby in a nice warm baby blanket, dont you think?

I remember it like it was yesterday. When my children were born, the nurses cleaned the girls up and wrapped them tightly in warm pink cotton blankets. What a thrill to see them! (When I think back on it now, each time it was sort of like holding a grande pink burrito with the most beautiful little face coming out from the end.)

Is she all right? I would ask the nurse. This blanket seems a little tight and she cant move much, I said.

The attending nurse would reassure me that she was indeed fine and to think for a moment where the baby had been for the past forty weeks. Not exactly a spacious park! Of course, the nurse was right. Our baby was content and seemed perfectly happy to be put back into a small, warm Windsor Sara Bixler environment.

So flash forward several years.

When I heard that my daughter Sara and her husband Dustin where expecting, I decided to make them a baby blanket. This is just what a weaver does, right? Well, commitments of work and writing my first book on rag rugs interfered. The weeks passed and soon we were presented with a beautiful granddaughter named Windsor.

So here I am with stacks of rag rugs woven for the bookand no baby blanket. Well, did I feel terrible? Of course I did. But I reminded myself that not every child born has a relative that weaves. Fortunately, Miss Windsor was gifted a number of beautiful blankets that blurred the fact that her grandfather had not woven her a special blanket of his own. And besides, there will be plenty of time to weave a blanket for Windsor. Maybe a blanket better suited for a toddler, or a blanket for an older child who wants to cuddle up with someone he or she loves for story time.

Blankets arent just for babies. Lots of children would love a special blanket to call their own, especially if they are going through a rough time. What better gift could you give a child going through a frightening time than your love, a stuffed toy, and a beautiful cozy blanket?

In the following pages youll find a number of different blankets that I designed to give you inspiration to weave a blanket for that special tiny someone. These pattern drafts range from beginning level to intermediate, and all the way up to designs for the advanced weaver. There are threading drafts for 4 and 8 shafts. There are simple, plain weave blankets; twill blankets; and blankets using more complex structures, such as overshot, summer and winter, and lace weaves.

The baby and parents may not be impressed or have any idea what effort you put into weaving a blanket, even if they love the result. But the process might as well be interesting and fun for you, right?

Take a look at the designs and be inspired. Change them around and make the designs yours. Substitute threads to make changes that better suit the needs of the child or parents. A heavy wool blanket may not be appreciated in a warm climate, so make a southern baby a blanket in cotton. Or if you love that cotton blanket but really want a blanket for a baby way up north, switch it over to wool. You are the weaver and you know what is best.

I hope you find some ideas that excite you. Baby blankets are fun to weavecolorful, soft, and quick. In many ways, they are the perfect project for the hand weaver.

And now, its off to the loom!

CHAPTER 1

How Large? How Small?

G uess what? There is no definitive answer to this question. A quick Internet search brought some surprising results. One experts suggested that for a preemie, a blanket should be about 18" square. This to me seems more like a kitchen towel and a preemie will soon outgrow such a small blanket. Another suggestion was for approximately 48" by 60". That to me seems a little large and more like a lap throw for Grandma.

There are so many different ideas on this that I decided to go through the stacks of baby blankets that we have here in the house. These included the blankets that my daughters had as children and my new granddaughters baby blankets. Most of them are around 30" to 36" square. Some of the blankets were rectangular (30" x 48").

Now some of these blankets are knitted, some crocheted, some quilted, and some handwoven. I discovered that the blankets that were used the most and took the biggest beating from love and wear from the little ones were those that were a little larger. They had lasted through my daughters toddler years and probably were used for all sorts of things, like playing house, making forts, and who knows what else. This larger size makes perfect sense to me.

When designing these baby blankets I took two things into consideration. First of all, I considered my blanket research project; and secondly, I thought about the weaving width of many looms. As you know, the weaving width is the actual width that can be warped onto a loom without distorting the threads. You can determine the weaving width of your loom by measuring the harness frames open area. (Measure the area where the warp is threaded and passes through the harness frame, not the outside of the frame. Please do not measure the beaters framethat measurement may be up to 12" wider than the real weaving width.)

Many loom manufacturers follow this basic guide to making looms. They offer floor looms with weaving widths of 36", 45", and 60". Manufacturers also make looms with smaller weaving widths that are intended to be portable, but these are not the looms that we would generally weave a blanket on anyway. So what youll find in these projects are blanket drafts of 32" to 36" in the reed. This should accommodate most looms and most weavers.

When designing and weaving your own designs, or adapting one of mine from the book, the real answer to the question How large is a baby blanket? is that it is up to you. Warp it as wide as you like and weave it as long as you like. Remember, as with all weaving, there is take-up and draw-in as you weave. Allow for about 10% to 15% for each in the blanket designs in this book.

Whatever you decide, remember that no size is really wrong. It all depends on you and the baby you are weaving for. A handwoven baby blanket will be loved and treasured by the parents and the babe.