Designing a Baby Blanket

So two of my favorite people have decided to have a baby and I want to make a special baby blanket for them.  The girl loves owls, so I decided to make them a cute owl blanket, similar to the elephant blanket I made for another friend.

I love designing crochet patterns, especially pieces with pictures in them.  If you have never designed a pattern before, it can seem daunting.  I'll post my design process as I work through it, so you can see the steps involved.

Step 1:  Decide on an image - I do a google image search and save multiple images that I like, to give myself as many options as possible.  I normally search "drawing + whatever I'm looking for" because it's easier for me to work from a simplified image instead of an actual picture of an elephant. 

Step 2:  Sketch out a few of your chosen images.  See how simple you can get the lines.  If it is your first project, it's best to keep your image one solid color.  Then all you have to worry about are the color transitions between the background and your image.  I've done a couple, so I wanted to up the challenge with this one.  I'll be using a minimum of three colors and I'm still deciding if I want to crochet the eyes separately or work them with the rest of the piece.

Step 3:  Select which image you are going to use (I always ask a friend for a second opinion.)  Get some grid paper, at least 1/2 the size that you want your finished piece to be, and draw your image out. 

Step 4:  Make a swatch with your intended yarn, at least 4x4.  I normally do these projects in half double crochet - I'm too impatient to do single crochet stitches.  Figure out what your gauge for stitches and rows are (Count the number of stitches in a 4" section across - divide by 4 to get your stitch per inch value.  Count the number of rows in a 4" section across - divide by 4 to get your row per inch value.) 

Stay tuned for my next blog post - I'll explain how to calculate your overall size, image size, and how many stitches each block on your graph represents.  I need to buy my yarn first, though!