What do you get when you’re a knitting geek who loves children’s literature? Another afghan, this time based on Eric Carle books!

I turned Goodnight Moon into an afghan for my first grandson and just HAD to make something similar for his brother!

7/15/17
Using the books Brown Bear, Brown Bear and The Very Hungry Caterpillar as the basis for the afghan. May also use some animals from Panda Bear, Panda Bear and Polar Bear, Polar Bear.

The first block was Brown Bear (aka Walking Grizzly). I used that graph as the basis for the rest of the charts. Some of the squares are made by using a dishcloth pattern (linked below) while others I charted on my own by either using a photocopied picture or a coloring page and tracing around it on the graph after I cut it out. CO 40 stitches, 2 st both sides for border; 2 garter rows top and bottom, 46 rows for the rest. 27 (ridges) is the magic number before binding off.

7-19-17
Almost done with the Brown Bear animals, need to add some details, block and weave in ends.

8/7/17
11 squares done (except for details); need to “color in” the caterpillar.

8/23/17
18 squares done (still need some details, at least the ends are woven in on each one pictured!); just have to weave in ends on a few and figure out the butterfly and one with a couple of children.

9/4/17
All the squares are done! Remade the fish and the cocoon. Only a couple need a few details. Now to try to figure out the placement and start sewing!

It’s funny how the gray is different (depending on the time of day I guess) in the pictures. It wasn’t easy picking a neutral color for the background, especially since the animals are so many different colors!
White? Beige? Black? What about the white dog? The polar bear? The sheep? Etc.
The room is painted gray, so went with that. None of the animals would “blend in” with the background.

9/6/17
Sewing is done!! Yay me!
So the teacher in me decided to put the Brown Bear animals in the same sequence as the book. (One thought was to have a “hide and seek” type thing). The four Very Hungry Caterpillar squares make great corners and the “friends” from Panda Bear and Polar Bear finish up the blanket.
Referred to my notes from Goodnight Moon afghan about the border. (Love having this resource!) Looks like a couple of SC rounds in the MC (G hook) then I’ll figure out the rest.

Border
Rd 1. Used a G hook in the main color to SC around in each st or garter st valley
Rd 2. Turned and did some increasing on the long sides (3 sc/square), SC in each st top and bottom
Rd 3. Turned and switched to white - SC in each st
Rd 4. HDC
Rd 5. Last round from Rock a Bye Rainsong

Brown Bear
Purple Cat
Blue Horse
Hungry Caterpillar
Butterfly

9/9/17
Guess I’ve put off sewing the parts to Charizard together long enough….Time to get back to work on him!

12/3/17
LINED!!! Got some fleece from Joann’s, washed/dried it a couple of times to preshrink it and took a deep breath when the time came to cutting it after pinning it on. I’ve lined just a couple of afghans and I’m scared that I’ll do something to ruin it every time! But they become so cozy after!!