Baby Blueprint Crochet Cover

Oh, Robyn! I was so excited to finally see Baby Blueprint Crochet: Irresistible Projects for Little Ones, by Robyn Chachula. Robyn has been working as an engineer and a crochet designer for years, and she was able to show off her fabulous pattern techniques in her first book Blueprint Crochet. Now, she’s done it again, for babies!

Yes, this book is totally adorable. We’d expect nothing less from Robyn, and from Interweave. But on top of being adorable, you also get to try out Robyn’s techniques of creating and joining motifs and constructing garments in a nice, small scale. You’ll learn a lot from this book and have fun doing it. Each pattern has charts and schematics to help you along, plus detailed written instructions–it’s like a hybrid of Japanese and American pattern styles. Very cool.

My favorite garment in the book is the Stella Jacket. It’s also the one that’s on the cover. It’s an Asian inspired cardigan complete with crocheted frog closures. super-cute.

Rosa Car Coat

I also love the Rosa car coat, because it looks like a grown-up sized sweater smallified for wee ones. Very chic. Oh, and then there’s the Hunter Pullover–a raglan boy’s sweater with an awesome snowflake motif. There are Snuggly Socks and adorable Pea Pod Slippers, not to mention OMG cute popsicle boots!

Popsicle Boots

I will have to come up with a baby to make these for. All of the pieces have practical features only a designing-mom could think of like snap openings for the booties, and easy-on necklines on all the sweaters.

One thing I would have liked to see in the garments section of the book are projects in finer yarns. Most of the garments are in worsted and DK yarns. This is great because you can finish projects quickly, but I think that baby items lend themselves to using fine yarns because you can create delicate fabrics without taking too much time. That said, the book uses a great variety of baby-friendly yarns in beautiful natural fibers, and vibrant colors.

Robyn has been a good friend for years–we are almost always roomies at the Needle Arts trade shows. It’s possible I’m not utterly unbiased, but I do think that Blueprint Crochet is arguably the cutest book of baby projects I’ve seen in years. Brava, Robyn!

A New Book: Baby Blueprint Crochet