Holley’s expecting twins! And “Elephants” is the nursery theme. Made coordinating gray and white blankets with blue and pink accents.

Used a basic Ripple/Chevron blanket pattern changing colors every 3 rows. Did BLO for the color change rows to give more definition between colors. Alternated elephants between light gray and medium gray. Added pink lips on the Mamas and girl baby elephant and tusks to the Daddy and boy baby elephant.

BORDERS:
For the Girl blanket I did a simple shell border in BLO. Afterward, reinforced the row all around with pink yarn.

For the Boy blanket I did a moss stitch stripe and then did SS as the last row, which gives it some substance, or “boxy” feel and resists curling.

Finished size with border:
Boy: approx 32.5”W x 36”H.
Girl: approx 32.5”W x 34”H (the pink yarn was a bit thinner than normal)

Followed the cute elephant applique by Julia Marquardt
https://youtu.be/2r43zbLyGew.
Used F hook for small elephant, H hook for medium & J hook for large elephant. Made one set in Light Gray and second set in Gray Mist and switched the middle elephants to give each blanket a slightly different look. Also added tusks to daddies and baby boy, and pink lips to mommies and baby girl.

Learned the Chainless Starting Double Crochet by Tamara Kelly - Moogly. It is a super nice technique which makes for a “plumper” starting stitch in place of a Ch 3. Also makes it really easy to crochet into when SC around the edges of the blanket.

Loved the results and so did mommy-to-be!

12-8-20 ETA both twins are home now and they are wrapped in the blankets in every new photo the mom posts on FB!