Buzzy Bee Baby Blanket with Matching Hat
I am in love with this blanket. I think it’s one of the cutest things I’ve ever made and I am so excited I finally get to show it off. I had to wait for the recipient to be born so I could give it to her. Now that I won’t ruin the surprise, here are the details on my Buzzy Bee Baby Blanket set.
As much as I would like to, I can’t take all the credit for the design or pattern. But I will take credit for putting it all together. I got the idea from the Sweet as Honey Blanket from Illuminate Crochet. I really liked the honeycomb and bumblebee theme, a honeycomb made out of individual hexagons… That got me thinking. I was in the middle of making a granny hex blanket, I could easily adapt that pattern to make a honeycomb. I just needed to use different shades of yellow. Since I wasn’t making the blanket from the pattern I decided not to purchase the pattern. I would just have to wing it when it came to crocheting the bee appliques.
So first, the blanket pattern is from Petal to Picots. Like I mentioned, it is the same Granny Hex pattern I used for the colorful afghan I am still working on. (The afghan is my “between projects” project.) I used 3 shades of yellow, the best one’s I could find at Joann’s. The centers are Red Heart Super Saver in Gold, the 2nd round is Vanna’s Choice in Duckie, and the outside round is Bernat Giggles in Oh Sunny Day. They are joined with Red Heart Soft in White.
I made these assembly line style. My first plan was to make a more or less square blanket, 8 hexes tall and 8 hexes across. So I made 64 gold centers, then added the 2nd round to all 64 hexes, and then went back and added the 3rd round. Then I joined them and then I weaved in all the ends. So many ends. 488 of them. It literally took me days.
When I went to join them, I decided rather then arranging the hexagons in a grid, I would make the whole blanket hexagon shaped. I ended up with a hexagon that is 5 hexes across each side, for a total of 61 hexagons.
For the edge of the blanket, I wanted to keep it simple. My first attempt was just to double crochet around, but it didn’t take me long to realize that is just didn’t look right. Since all the hexes are joined in a twisting pattern, I wanted to continue that in the edging. I actually just crocheted the edge just like I was joining it to another hex, just without the join part. Join, sc, (Ch 2, remove the hook and insert it through the ch 2 space) repeat all the way around. I really like how it turned out.
So all that is left for the blanket is the bee appliques. I had to invent my own pattern for that, and it is pretty simple. Here it goes.
Crochet Bee Applique Pattern
Bee Body
With black and a I hook, Ch 5.
Row 1: 2 hdc in 3rd ch from hook. Ch 2. Turn. (2 hdc)
Row 2: 2 hdc inc. Change to yellow. Ch 2. Turn. (4 hdc)
Row 3: Hdc across. Ch 2. Turn. (4 hdc)
Row 4: Hdc inc, hdc in next 2 st, hdc inc. Change to black. Ch 2, turn. (6 hdc)
Row 5: Hdc across, ch 2, turn. (6 hdc)
Row 6: Hdc across, change to yellow, ch 2, turn. (6 hdc)
Row 7: Hdc across, ch 2, turn. (6 hdc)
Row 8: Hdc dec, hdc in next 2, hdc dec, ch 2, turn. (4 hdc)
Row 9: 2 hdc dec. Fasten off. (2 hdc)
Wings (Make 2)
With white,
Ch 8.
Sl st in 2nd ch from hook. Sc, hdc, dc, dc, tc in next 5 ch.
In end ch, (tc, ch 1,) 5 times. Tc. (6 tc). This makes the round part of the wing.
On the opposite side of chain,
Tc, dc, dc, hdc, sc, sl, in each ch. Fasten off leaving long tail. Attach wings to body. Weave in ends. Create eye with a french knot.
I originally made 5 bees and experimented with placement. In the end, I decided on only using 3 and spacing them evenly around the outside of the blanket. You could add as many or as few bees as you’d like. When I attached the bees to the blanket, I was super careful not to let the stitches show on the backside.
Now the blanket is finished. Be sure to throw it in the wash before giving it as a gift. I’m really bad about blocking, but once through the washer and dryer really helped even out the stitches and made it lay nice and flat. It also made to super soft. I loathe Super Saver yarn and hated that it was the only acrylic I could find in gold, but truth be told, once it went through the wash, it was soft as could be.
No baby blanket is really complete without a matching hat, so I had to whip one up. I found this Shell Stitch Beanie pattern at the Dainty Daisy and immediately fell in love with it. I still plan to make one in the original color with the flower, but for this purpose made it white, and yellow striped and replaced the flower with a smaller bee. I used the same bee pattern as for the blanket, just with an F hook instead of an I hook.
So there you have it. The Buzzy Bee Baby Blanket with Matching Hat. I hope you enjoy it as much I enjoyed making it. If I make another (and I already have a request from my sister, who we found out is having a baby girl!), I think I’ll switch the hexagons so that the darkest yellow is on the outside with the lightest in the center. I think that will give better contrast with the white join… What do you think?
