I loved babywearing my son when he was tiny.
Being a lover of fabric, colours and texture, it was natural that I fell in love with the myriad of babywearing wraps that you can buy. It took me a long time to decide on which colour scheme to get. I could easily have bought one of each, but as the initial investment (even with second hand wraps) is significant, I decided to choose just one.
My eventual choice was the Storch (short for Storchenwiege) Ulli wrap, that I found on a preloved babywearing Facebook group.
I just loved the purples, pinks, red and greens all mixed together in beautiful symphony.
It really was a joy to have my son tied around me in the beautiful swathes of woven fabric.
I'd seen other crafting babywearing mums crochet up blankets in the colours of their wraps before and thought it was an amazing idea, so I decided to embark on my own.
This was going to be a big project, so I chose an acrylic yarn called Special DK by Stylecraft in colours Claret, Shrimp, Wisteria, Apricot, Purple and Kelly Green.
So, I made a slip stitch chain of 250 stitches and began to single crochet rows in the same colour block ratios as my faithful Storch Ulli wrap.
What started as a noodle, grew to a long scarf, and then it was big enough to cover my knees as I worked. Perfect for crafting during the long winter months.
Literally years later it finally became the afghan I had visualised all those years ago.
I finished the edges with a pretty scallop crochet edging in the dark red, sewed in the ends, washed and blocked the piece.
The resulting blanket took a very long time, but I'm really happy with it. It's really big -- around the size of a king bed.
And now, I can wrap my son up cosy and warm in a different kind of wrap ... a lovely handmade (with oodles of love) crochet afghan blanket instead.
