Work in Progress: Raad Baby Blanket

Reading copious amounts of Terry Pratchett has given me a soft spot for puns. This particular pun is a play on my friend's surname, Raad, and the slang term, "rad". She's pregnant, and the crochet blanket will be a gift to her child, becoming a Raad blanket. Get it? Get it? Oh, man, I crack myself up.

Above: The Raad blanket uses the classic granny square crochet design.

Above: Each square has a silver border, so that I can hide the join easily by using silver crochet yarn when attaching them.

Above: I chose to use opposite arrangements of light and dark colors. This creates both balance and interest in the design.

 Above: The crochet baby blanket is crafted using bamboo yarn (yup, you guessed it, from my favorite yarn maker - Vinni's). The bamboo crochet yarn is incredibly soft, has a nice weight and a lovely sheen. A color that would have been grey in any other yarn, becomes silver, because of the sheen of the bamboo yarn. I think it's going to turn out beautifully.

I'm using a no.4 crochet hook, with a double stitch. For each row, I turn the piece over, so that there is no "front" and "back" to the square. On the third, fourth and fifth rows (counted from the center), I crochet into the top of the stich, instead of the big gap between the stiches. This gives the blanket even more fluidity of movement. 

A word of advice for crocheting with bamboo yarn; take it slow and hide your cut ends. Mistakes wrought in this yarn are highly visible and it can be frustrating to go over each square looking for shaggy ends and missed threads.