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A Newfoundland Photography and Knitting Blog by Betty Nolan

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

All About Blankets

A few posts ago I mentioned that I would write about blankets. Here it is.  Blankets. We all love them.  From the tiniest of us to the largest of us, we need and love blankets. Animals love blankets. We don't often think about it but blankets are a huge part of our everyday lives. Babies are wrapped in them after birth. Kids drag them around for years. Teenagers take them on sleep-overs. Dogs and cats make little nests in them and try to steal them from us. Men take them hunting. We curl up in them to watch movies and read books. We curl up in them when we are tired, lonely, grieving or in love. We draw comfort from them every day, an night.

How did my love for knitting blankets start? A few years ago my youngest daughter was living in Montreal in winter. She was coming home to Newfoundland for Christmas so when I asked her what she'd like for Christmas, she said, "a knit blanket". I had just bought the knitting machine so it was a good re-practice for me, though a bit daunting (I'd never knit a blanket before). It was a big hit, so much so that I wrote the pattern for it and called it Bright Blanket. You can find it on my Ravelry page HERE. Since then I've made numerous blankets for family and friends. They all give the same testimonials - excitement upon receipt and joyous remarks upon usage.  I've received stories of people not being able to sleep in the middle of the night, then went to the closet and retrieved the blanket I'd knit for them, wrapped themselves in it and drifted off to a peaceful night's sleep. I don't provide this guarantee but I think there's a small child in each of us and that every now and again we need our "blankies".  :-)

Last week I quit my day job. So, now Rockin's Knits is back on stream and we're knitting' blankets. Big ones, small ones, acrylic, wool, organic cotton, alpaca, cashmere - whatever works in a blanket. Ellen might even come back for this!

Please feel free to leave any comments or thoughts you have about blankets (or blanket stories) below or email me (bettynolan@mac.com). If you want to buy a knit blanket, email me with your blanket desires and I'll give you a price.

Here's a few pictures of some of past blankets:

Angela's bright blanket

Bright Blanket close-up

Ellen reading with the Sunny Reading Blanket

Jack napping on the Sunny Reading blanket

Blair's Camo hunting blanket

Lynn's blanket

Josh's blanket


Chelsea's blanket

Blanket for wedding present