The Love Blanket

Do you remember your little comfort buddy from when you were tiny?  My older sister had her teddy bear, Jonathan, but my younger sister and I were firmly in the blanket camp.  Meredith had a little blue and white blankie with a horse on it, Pony, and I had a fuzzy pink blanket with satin trim, Pinkie (...toddlers tend to be quite staunch literalists.)

So blankets are comforting, right?  They're fuzzy, you can snuggle up with them and they're pretty portable/practical when traveling.  And they happen to be a fantastic way to use up all the leftover yarn odds and ends sitting around in your preciously-small apartment storage space.  I made the original Love Blanket for Darling Kai.  (Reason #1: his bedding was kinda wooly/scratchy; Reason #2: who doesn't want their boyfriend to think of them when he climbs into bed?)  

So I knitted up a giant love blanket for Kai last year as a Christmas present and soon after he started having dreams that about it.  He'd be in some dire nightmare situation and in his peripheral he'd catch a glimpse of the Love Blanket glowing in the corner--Love Blanket to the rescue!  I think the moral of the story is that my knitted creations have magical powers. (Yes, I am taking commissions...).

The Original Love Blanket

Right around the same time, I find out (joy of joys!) that I'm going to be an auntie.  Sister Kate is having a baby boy and we just celebrated with a shower last weekend.  So obviously the little one needs a blankie with magical powers. 

Baby Mango's Love Blanket

I'm super addicted to the pattern for this blanket (based this Knitty article). You start with a little tiny circle in the middle, add stitches as you swirl around, and the blanket gets bigger and bigger.  It works especially well with my disdain for planning--it's a pattern that encourages improvisation; you can make it as big as you like, adding colors and stripes whenever, until it reaches blankety perfection.

I hope the little mango has dreams about  his glowing, super-powered Love Blanket; that he wears it as a cape while he flies around his apartment; and that he loves it down to the nub.