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I've recently been asked by a great friend to crochet a baby blanket for them. They would be paying the yarn, so I asked them to find a pattern and buy the yarn. She's sent me a few patterns to check if they're all within my skills, and that's where the trouble starts: All the patterns she found had holes in it. I forgot to warn her about that.

Now, I've always heard that if you make anything for babies, it shouldn't have holes in it that they can tangle their tiny fingers or toes in, to avoid injuries similar to those of a hair tourniquet. I told my friend and so far she's been very understanding, and she's wanting to go with a 'no-holes' blanket if needed. But she's very in love with this pattern. The description I've found says it is to be a 'decorative blanket', but she really wants something similar for daily use and asked me if there isn't any way to make that safe for the future baby.

All I can come up with is putting fabric on one side of the blanket, I've done that a few times to make blankets with holes like that warmer. But I don't think it will make the blanket any safer: A baby can still get their fingers or toes tangled into the holes and get injured.

Has anyone here ever baby-proofed a blanket with holes like that? If so, how did you do it?

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  • I know nothing about crocheting, so I'll just throw this out there. Part of the pattern is tight and part has large holes. Would a solution be to "fill" the holes with a tighter pattern in dark color yarn?
    – fixer1234 ♦
    Jul 30, 2021 at 17:40
  • While it looks like with some experimentation you could probably fill in much of the design while making it, it might be better for her to look for a similar granny square motif that's already been made baby-safe and use similar colors for a similar "feel" to it.
    – Allison C
    Aug 2, 2021 at 15:01

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I think it is safe: these blankets are made from soft material and most yarn stretches. It is far more likely that the yarn will tear than that it causes injury. Also, these holes are much larger than a baby's fingers or toes.

For baby proofing: use yarn that is recommended for babies' stuff!

(For example, no yearn that give bleeds colour, no unsafe synthetic material, no thread that does not stretch,...)

If you really want to avoid having holes, you could also use fabric liner and sew the blanket to a cotton sheet.

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    Yarn does not break easily even with the force of a grown adult pulling on it; it absolutely won't break if an infant gets tangled in it.
    – Allison C
    Aug 2, 2021 at 14:59
  • Some of the yarn I have worked with, broke quite easily but you are right that this may not be true for all kinds of yarn used for baby stuff.
    – Aolon
    Aug 3, 2021 at 5:27
  • a quality yarn won't break easily; a poor quality or damaged yarn might, but those would be very bad choices for a baby blanket for other reasons. I have only had yarn break when it was damaged by rubbing against something while I was pulling it up, never on its own. Get better yarn, or re-evaluate what you're letting it fall and rub against as you work. :)
    – Allison C
    Aug 3, 2021 at 13:30
  • I agree it's unlikely to break but I also think it's really unlikely to form a tourniquet because there's nothing likely to tighten any of the holes. The baby also shouldn't be left sleeping under a blanket anyway.
    – MissMonicaE
    Feb 15, 2022 at 14:54

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