Need advice for deciding on my next project

[medrin]

My sister is going to have her first baby in August and I am planning to make something for it. I figure a baby blanket is a thing that would be useful? Also, unlike clothes the baby won't outgrow it in a week and a half... But I'm trying to decide on what KIND of blanket to make.

So now I'm asking you, especially those of you who have/have had babies. What kind of blanket did you find the most use of? Knitted or crocheted? Wool or cotton?

I figure since babies, it need to be washable/durable so then cotton is a good choice. For wool choices I'm looking at sock yarns. Since I don't want it to take forever to make and also not be super bulky I'm looking at using 3-4 mm needles.

The two ideas I keep coming back to is either to buy a large number of different single colour yarns and make something like this: Crocheed chevron blanket, probably in a cotton yarn (probably either this or this which my LYS has on stock so I could just go buy it today.

OR: To knit something inspired by ten stitch blanket but with two spirals with different colour-ways. The yarn I keep looking at for this pattern is this which is very shiny but necessitates ordering online.

Maybe I should do both? Will I have time to do both? I have no idea.

Comments

[tree_and_leaf]

Do the baby's parents have a tumble dryer? If not, I'd steer clear of cotton, it may be washable, but it takes forever to dry (I also imagine it wouldn't be very comfortable to knit something like the ten stitch blanket in cotton given its lack of give). Baby acrylic or acrylic blend is my usual default (it's also vastly less likely to pose a problem with allergies). I love Zauberball, but I'm not sure it would be suitable for babies.