Kelly Komejan is living the dream… or at least working it. As an employee at her LYS, Country Needleworks, Kelly not only spends her days surrounded by yarn, she also gets to teach classes on knitting, crochet and beading. It’s a great way to fund her habit!
Kelly’s Modern Stripes Baby Blanket is a reversible, colorwork baby blanket crocheted in Berroco Modern Cotton. Using seven different shades, the blanket is worked in six-inch stripes featuring alternating texture patterns. The stitches are mostly single and double crochets, so the project is easy enough for a beginner but interesting enough for more advanced crocheters. You can download the pattern for free on Ravelry!

How did you come up with this design?
When I took over the “Learn to Crochet” class at the store, I added crocheting to my current passions. Over the past year, I’ve seen a big increase in demand for crochet classes, patterns and models at the store. That’s really what drove me to make this blanket. We didn’t really have anything current or on trend in the crochet area.
How did you choose the yarn for this project?
I picked Modern Cotton because the color palette is more sophisticated, which is what most new moms seem to be picking for their babies. Not to mention, it feels fantastic and is so easy to coordinate colors. I loved the yarn so much when I was crocheting the blanket that I bought some of it to make myself a sweater!
If I could knit or crochet something for anyone in the world, it would be…?
It would have to be my 12 year old son. I know that sounds sappy, but he totally appreciates everything I make for him. He wore the first sweater I made for him at school the whole day even though it got up to 80 degrees! He was sweating when he got off the bus! I finally convinced him he could take it off when we got home. It’s so much more fun to make something for someone when you know they’re going to love it!
What’s your favorite thing about knitting/crocheting?
There are so many things I love about knitting and crocheting, but the best has to be the friends I’ve made because of it. I’m surrounded by people who are as obsessed with it as I am. They don’t think you’re crazy when you overthink patterns, yarns and colors. And they understand the obsession to collect more stash than you will probably ever use in your lifetime, because they all do it too. We’re just a bunch of enablers and it’s so much fun!

Do you have a cool design you want to share? Or did you recently finish a project with Berroco yarn? You can email Ashley: apalumbo@berroco.com or post it to the Berroco Lovers forum in Ravelry.