Nicole Tasker Woods

About 17 or 18 years ago, my Grammy Tasker got me interested in crocheting. She was always knitting and making afghans and sweaters for all her grand children and great grand children. Whenever I would come over to her house in the summer or after school to watch Price Is Right or Bonanza, she always had another project going. Her fingers would moved like lightning with those knitting needles!

The first blanket I started was with a super soft purple yarn and from that tiny square that she started for me, I ended up making a really large girly blanket, which I always thought would be for my baby girl. It was purple, pink, yellow and blue. I actually slept underneath it when I was home in March for my NH baby shower and was surprised how comfortable it was–not only was it the perfect weight, but it covered my entire body! I was never too adventurous when crocheting and always went around and around the center square so as a result, the blanket is a perfect square.

As I was looking through the nooks and crannies of my childhood bedroom in March, I found another afghan that I had Grammy help me start and the colors were very cool–all different shades of blue, except for a small section of light purple. I forgot that I had started making this blanket on the off-chance that I had a baby boy. And now look at me! Just about 38 weeks pregnant and I’m having a boy! I’m so glad my childhood instincts steered me in the right direction!

This bluish blanket, however, was not finished. I think I had lost interest or forgot that it was still in progress and stuffed it in my over-stuffed closet. When finding this unfinished afghan, I was surprised that I could grab the crochet needle and continue working on it–as if my fingers never forgot the moves to make with the needle & yarn. So I packed up this blanket with the 5 others that I had gotten at my NH baby shower and decided to finish it before my little man was born.

Since April, every other night in front of the TV my fingers were diligently crocheting as if racing to get another row of blue done so that I could switch colors and continue to the end. There was no rhyme or reason to the number of rows for each color or what color I would choose–I would just take the blanket into JoAnn Fabrics or Michaels and try to find a shade of blue that would blend nicely with the previous blue.

Last night, I was finally satisfied with the size of the blanket and laid it on top of Ryan. He is 6’1” so if it can cover him, then it is finally big enough! I straightened it out on the floor and two misfits jumped on top…

Cali had been lying on top of as well as underneath this blanket the whole time I was making it so I wasn’t surprised when she anxiously laid on top of it once it was finished. We have another afghan at the house that Grammy made out of off-white yarn, which we call the “Grammy Blanket” and every time we pull it out of the closet and put it on one of the downstairs couches, Cali jumps up on top of it and makes herself a little nest. There’s something about the soft yarn and smell that she just LOVES.

I wanted this blue blanket to be bigger than all the other afghans that I got at my NH shower. Although they are wonderful blankets for a baby, they are very small and not ideal for a growing child. I plan on putting this blanket on my son’s bed; I think Cali is going to love curling up on this Blue Blanket as much, if not more than the Grammy Blanket.