Discovery Blanky

Hi, Y'all!

Well, I didn’t really believe I’d ever revive this blog again, but sometimes I manage to surprise even myself! And then my youngest daughter provided an especially lovely surprise of her own when she announced some very happy news right around Mother’s Day 2025. Yep — since November we’ve officially been grandparents, which means we are now formally authorized to sabotage all parental upbringing efforts. :-)

Naturally, I sprang into action and started crafting all sorts of things for the little guy: pacifier chains, rattles, a mobile, a cuddly toy, you name it — that’ll fill a whole separate blog post, promise! And now that the little rascal is starting to explore the world, and since I’ve sewn more than a few quilts in my lifetime, my daughter requested one of those as well — though with some extra features.

Extra features? What kind of features would that be? Well, our grandson is currently absolutely fascinated by textures, surfaces, textiles, materials — touching, looking, licking — and somehow all of that was supposed to be reflected in the quilt; essentially a discovery blanket. (Should I trademark the German name "Entdecker-Decke", I wonder?) I already had a rough idea, because if you’ve ever looked into baby toys, play mats, and the like, you’ve probably seen one or two things heading in that direction. Still, I deliberately avoided tutorials or examples. I didn’t want to copy anything — this was meant to be a completely individual blanket, built around my own ideas.

For about a year now, I’ve rediscovered crochet. It had been neglected for quite some time: during my storm‑and‑stress years I did a lot of knitting, then shifted my focus heavily to sewing. Here in Malta I now spend a good 45 minutes on the bus twice a day — not exactly ideal for sewing‑machine projects — and given the state of the roads, wielding sharp knitting needles isn’t entirely risk‑free either. So it was the perfect opportunity to act as Captain Hook again — with purely peaceful intentions, of course! And that’s when it struck me: why not combine both techniques? In other words, sew a simple blanket, divide it into individual sections, and then fill those with all kinds of crocheted elements that a baby or toddler might (hopefully) find endlessly interesting and exciting.

It goes without saying that everything had to be completely childproof, therefore I had to let go of a few ideas, because the danger of chewing and choking was real. And so it happened that on a sunny Saturday morning I went out for a fabric hunt. 

Well, the hunt was successful, as you can see below:

I chose denim fabric and a thick batting, because it's durable, washable, robust and the perfect background for colorful applications. 'Cause I'm not the biggest fan of soft pastels...

So far, so good. I planned three rows consisting of five squares each. That was pretty handy, because the middle row was designated for the little one's name - completely flat, so he can ly on it comfortably and inspect the other squares while resting in the center. What a coincidence that he is named Jonas, which has exactly five letters - hah! So, in the following days the fellow commuters in the bus could watch me crochet the letters, and you can see it here: 

That was easy, and during my fabric purchase I also bought two giant buttons - and like this the next two sections were done: From sewing a cooler last summer I had some leftover sunscreen material which I cut to the right shape, covered it in crochet and fixed it as some kind of flap on the segments. After that carefully sewing on the two buttens, and the first two activity squares were completed. 

And while we're talking about closures, let me add a belt buckle. I bet in your youth you had the same exact fabric belt you had to weave at first through both rings and then once again only through one of them (I definitely had). I happened to have two untreated birchwood rings and a bit of turquoise cotton yarn et voilá:

If weaving is hard, chewing on it is definitely easy! And moreover I want the blanky to be interesting for quite some time, not only for a few days. As I still had four of these rings, I kept going and fixed them onto the next square with yarn in different colors - so he can grab and turn them as he pleases. 

Since Jonas is growing up with two house tigers, it was only logical that I’d immortalize a kitty on the blanket as well. My original idea was to place the cat in the middle of one panel and let its tail dangle all the way down. (Sounds weird, but trust me.)

However, the hubs — an experienced father — strongly advised against this, arguing that the little guy might put it in his mouth and swallow it. Even tying a knot in the tail to shorten it wasn’t a safe option in his opinion (must be one of those man things :-D). Instead, he came up with the brilliant idea of attaching the cat more toward the side of the panel and fixing the tail along the edge, sort of like a handle or grip. I thought that was a great idea — but the panel still looked a bit empty, so I crocheted an extra paw (with a rattle inside).

For the rattle to actually be perceived as a rattle, it has to be able to move, so I only stitched it down along the lower edge. Now the paw can wobble up and down like one of those Chinese lucky waving cats.

The next square of activity came about more or less by accident. I had crocheted some shopping nets, then unraveled them again — but the handles survived the process. I promptly put them to new use by crocheting small rings in various colors and threading them onto the handles. I then stitched the whole thing onto the blanket, a bit like those old‑school abacuses where you could slide wooden beads from left to right on a rod — except in my case, they move from top to bottom.

Next up, I crocheted a flower — starting, of course, with the center in sunshine yellow, followed by lots of colorful petals. However, I only attached each petal at a single point so they’d be easier to grab and fiddle with. To make the whole experience even more exciting, I filled the petals with roasting‑in‑a‑bag film so they’d make a nice crinkly sound. (Yes, you read that right! This stuff is brilliant: it tolerates water and heat — as it should, considering it’s meant for the oven — and it makes wonderfully crackly noises, which makes it absolutely perfect.)

I created the next panel in two stages, because I simply wasn’t happy with the first version. I had crocheted a caterpillar — the upper segments were stuffed with soft filling, and the smaller ones at the bottom I filled with wooden beads. Somehow, though, it all felt a bit dull, so I spontaneously added some colorful wings — and just like that, the caterpillar turned into a butterfly.

Which immediately reminds me of that little “metamorphosis” poem:

I am a caterpillar, green and spry,
you are a deer that wanders by.
I’ll be a butterfly, light and free —
you’ll be venison… bon appétit!

The body is attached to the blanket, but the wings are only fastened to the body, so they can flutter around a bit.

Anyone who’s been counting will know that only two panels were still missing at this point. For one of them, I wanted to do something with cars — but unfortunately I couldn’t come up with a completely toddler‑safe way of attaching the wheels so they could actually spin. So I left the wheels static and crocheted a traffic light instead. Educational mission accomplished, I’d say.

And last but not least I wanted to create again something traffic related. As little buddy lives near the Stuttgart 21 area (google it and you will know and shake your head in disbelief). So there had to be a freight train with a trailer - the freight slightly puffy and filled with crackle film as well as the little clouds. 

And this is the discovery blanky in all it's glory:

Admittedly this is easier to grasp when seeing it in action rather just trying to imagine with static pictures and some description. Therefore I made a video - I very much hope you can see and hear it!

Is this fishing for compliments? Maybe. Am I a bit proud? Yes. Does Jonas like it? Definitely!!!

With that being said - enjoy spring and especially the butterflies!