Gwyn has always been a crafter, so I wasn’t surprised when she bought some chunky knit yarn to take a shot at making a blanket. She picked the process up very quickly, and even taught herself how to insert little hearts into the pattern, making her very first blanket quite the special gift. She has since made two more, all of different designs, and I’ve included all tutorials below.
The Basics
If you’re new to hand-knitting, this video is a great place to start. It walks through the basics and makes the process feel totally doable, even for beginners.
Inserting Hearts
The hearts in her blanket made it really special, and actually weren’t too hard to do. To make these, she would cut the end of the blue yarn when ready to insert a heart, use a lighter to singe the end, and press the lit end against the end of the white yarn for about 3-5 seconds, fusing the two colors together. After looping the white yarn one time, she’d repeat the same process to end the white yarn and pick back up with the blue.
Note- the hearts take shape in the next row once the pattern is continued. To see an up-close tutorial of this process, you can watch this video HERE.
Gwyn gifted Franklin a design-your-own handmade blanket for his birthday. He originally drew a pretty elaborate design, but I quietly stepped in and explained that it needed to be something a bit simpler. He happily settled on 49ers colors with his initial in the middle, though he definitely hinted he would absolutely love it if she could somehow make it look like the 49ers logo.
Design 1
Design 2
Gwyn took on the challenge and made his vision come to life and he couldn’t have loved it any more. To see his reaction, you can see the video HERE <3
Adding Letters
While Gwyn didn’t know how to weave the design into the blanket, she was able to figure out how to add the letters to the top of the blanket, and I found a tutorial showing how to do this right HERE.
And to add the different color edging, see HERE for a more detailed look.
Striped Pattern
The last blanket Gwyn made was a gift for me, and it matches our room so well. She used a striped pattern, though it’s a little hard to see in the photo because one of the yarns she chose is a white and green mix, which blends with the white of the bulk of the blanket. For a more in-depth look, here is the tutorial if you want to try it yourself.
To wrap it all up, tying off the blanket is the final (and important!) step. We found this tutorial incredibly helpful for finishing things neatly.
Let us know if you try to make one for yourself!
<3 Gwyn and Shannon
