Why is it called the 6-Day Kid Blanket?

This page contains affiliate links. If you click these links and buy something on the page they take you to, I may, at no additional cost to you, earn a commission. I only affiliate with products and companies I feel good about. Thank you for your support!

This is a great question that I get from a lot of my followers!

I designed the 6-Day Kid Blanket when I was in graduate school at the University of Hawai‘i, and I didn’t have a lot of time for hobbies. I didn’t ever have any intention of being a crochet ‘designer’ or blogger, in fact blogging wasn’t really even a thing at the time. Ravelry had just started. I made things for friends and family, and I often didn’t follow patterns, I made my own stuff to give away.

I had made baby blankets for most of the babies in the family. When my sister had her first grandchild, I was in grad school, and I think he was almost one year old before I got around to making him a blanket. I chose a stitch pattern I liked from 200 Ripple Stitch Patterns by Jan Eaton and started making a small blanket for my grand-nephew, who was no longer a baby, but who was already a toddler (hence “kid blanket” as opposed to “baby blanket.”)

I only had time to work on projects for a couple of hours at night in my down time, in front of tv shows or movies before going to bed. I was able to complete the blanket for my grand-nephew in six easy days of crochet.

So my original blanket, made for a toddler, using super bulky weight yarn and starting with a chain of 105 made a very small blanket, about 36×33″. When it was finished, I thought, this is pretty nice! I should publish it on that new Ravelry thingy! I never thought 10 years later thousands of blankets would have been made from my pattern.

By including the formula of 17+3 in the pattern, I enabled people to make the blanket in larger sizes.

I have to give this disclaimer however that to make a larger blanket than the original toddler version, it will probably take you longer than 6 days.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR BLANKET IN 6 DAYS

After helping tons of crocheters make blankets through my Facebook Group I can tell you that making a larger-than-toddler sized blanket in six days is absolutely possible, but here are some tips to help you complete your blanket in six days.

Use the chart given in the pattern to make a blanket that starts with no more than 122 chains, 139 if you are a fast crocheter and have a lot of time in those six days to work on your blanket. If you are slow, or you just have a couple of hours to crochet, make a blanket on 105.
Use heavier yarn to make a bigger blanket.
Use self-striping yarn like Caron Cakes or make your blanket one color so you don’t have a lot of ends to weave in.
Always take the time to stop and stretch, do some hand and arm yoga, and admire your work when crocheting in long sessions.