I'm starting to pull together some ideas for our new blankets, very sadly knit for MNers who have both lost a beloved baby recently :(
You will have instructions from Pistey about wool colours and some suggested shops to buy from - personally I buy mine from McA Direct and have found their service excellent, but there are lots of alternatives out there. Warning: Hobbycraft do not generally stock the required yarns.
The question of how many stitches to cast on comes down to the question of gauge; how tight or loose your knitting is with the yarn in question. Best way is to knit a sample (or a plain square); just measuring how wide it is once you've cast on won't be a very reliable measure because it stretches out once you start knitting. Equally, if it's already more than 6" wide you're on a hiding to nothing. For most people, on 4mm needles, 33-ish stitches and about 45-ish rows should give you a 6" x 6" square but don't do a whole one if you're not sure or a slow knitter, as it's mega-frustrating to have to pull it all back down again.
What follows is mostly links to patterns that we've done or revised in earlier blankets, or ideas for things you might want to try. I know there are some specific pattern requests for these two blankets and I'm looking those out. Warning: many of these are links to patterns on Ravelry, which is like the Facebook of knitting. Registering is free and 100% worth it, although it may mean you start sending your salary direct to your yarn shop of choice at the start of each month as you discover more and more amazing things to knit.
If you want to start with something more adventurous than garter stitch (knit every row) or stockinette (knit one row, purl the next, and so on) why not try the Chinese waves pattern? (Non-Ravelry link). Or maybe stars - this is a bit more difficult - (Non-Ravelry link).
Birds have been specifically requested so we're starting with this lovely Owl pattern - this involves cables and ends up looking a bit like this.
Note, though - before having a go at these patterns you need to know what your gauge is, so you can modify the pattern (so in the case of the owl, cast on fewer stitches / chop out a few rows in terms of length for example) or change needles to get it close to the 6" size.
If you want to follow our adventures in trying to get a particularly devilish heart pattern right, please see the support thread in which Team Heart did battle with hearts, trees and elephants.
More to follow ...
Woolly Hugs is a charity established by a group of Mumsnet users. They knit / crochet handmade blankets and other items for families experiencing difficult times.
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Support thread - new blankets
tribpot · 08/05/2012 21:23
Thanks Pistey :) I do not get kickbacks from them, although I think I should 
bird - Blues, warm purples, pinks, greens, silvers and cream
I have been meaning to ask what 'cold purple' is and why we are not allowed to use it, I think Knotty and Pistey should be held to account on that one
mummyinspain Your wool is on its way 
We always ask families for suggestions so that we can really personalise blankets, it is so important we make the blanket for the family iyswim. So for MrsY's yes please to a mouse design, or a peanut ( we've put Trib on the trail for this) and their suggestions of stars, birds or feathers. Way beyond me though. We do have crafters working on initials for both blankets which is great.
Good luck with your DD helping!
And hope the wool arrives soon 
lemon - yip, many thanks for the links. I was gonna have a go at one of them at the weekend to see what it looked like but a peanut is going to be a bit tough to do in a way that doesn't look like a blob 
. There are some cute Snoopy patterns available but I do appreciate that's not quite the same thing! I wonder if maybe just using the basic shape of the peanut in a slightly lacy way - this website has a rather gawjus peanut logo, for example.
Bobbles are a good thought, lemon. Catpoop is not 
How about this which is a v basic little chart I've wanged together based on a sort of peanutty shape? I've put two different designs down, I think the second works better. Obv you need a certain degree of imagination to suppose this really looks like a peanut.
Yeah, I realise the purple is not quite brown enough. But then brown is off the list, like cold purple - might need to be more of a peanut-shaped motif than an actual peanut-coloured peanut.
I got away with this last time, so I think Knotty and Pistey are not totally rigid on the colours. Although maybe they just said that so I wouldn't feel bad!
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I missed the catpoop square, but maybe I shouldn't ask!
My mum is visiting this weekend and bring her needles so I'll get her to do a couple of fancy shmancy squares to pass off as my own
So prettybird, should we try to organise a Scotland meet up? I don;t know how many of us are up here, but me+you=2 that could be classed as a meet up!!
My knitting is tighter now than the last blanket so my 35 stitches for the chinese wave design only gave me 4 inches
And I can vouch for Tribs companyMCA direct for fast delivery and great customer service!
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