Mission Baby Blanket: Accomplished!

Today I can finally present you my finished Baby Blanket. Hooray!!

Although I only used three different colors plus beige, I've decided to call it "United Colors Baby Blanket". The baby for whom I've made this blankie will be born in New York to a German Mom and a Chinese Daddy - if that's not a case of united colors... :)

I like reading statistics to finished blankets, so here's mine:

Size: 75 x 75 cm

Yarn: Catania by Schachenmayer, colors Pistazie (2x), Mimose (2x), Flieder (2x), Crème (6x)

Pattern: 

36 Squares “Sunburst” (German Video-Tutorial on nadelspiel.com)

28 Squares “Babyblümchen” (German Video-Tutorial on nadelspiel.com)

Edging: Bobble-Shell-Edging (Pattern by Lucy on attic24)

Timeline: 11.05.2011 – 23.06.2011

(with 2 breaks á 2 weeks when I had to wait for yarn)

Evaluation:

Positive: I love the colors and the pattern, it was easy and quick to make.

Negative: The blanket is not soft and cuddly enough for a baby blanket, but a little bit too heavy and stiff. Next time I’ll have to use a different yarn.

Overall I'm quite happy with the finished result - what do you think?

Edit:

Thank you so much for the lovely words in your comments! Some of you have asked me different questions, and I'll try to answer them here:

About the yarn (Catania): You can wash it in the machine (40 °C) and iron it with steam, but you shouldn't put it in the dryer.

Joining the squares: I crocheted the squares (right sides facing) together with slip stitches, using the inner loops only. I hoped the outer loops would fold around the seam, so that the blanket looks nice and smooth. It didn't work as well as I had planned, but I think a little bit more ironing might help.

About the Video-Tutorials: Actually I don't like Video-Tutorials, because my internet connection is not the fastest. Nadelspiel is an Austrian website made by lovely eliZZZa, and it's all about crochet, knitting and sewing. When I re-discovered crochet a few months ago, this was the first website I found and I loved it because of the wonderful granny squares. I linked to the Video-Tutorials, because that's where I've got the patterns from - but actually I really do prefer written patterns or drawings.

If you've got more questions, please let me know and I'll answer them here!

Now I'd like to ask you a question: is it just my perception, or do you also think that blankets are the most popular crochet items ever? Of all my posts, the ones concerning the baby blanket have the most visitors. And me, when I visit a link gallery (like i-crochet), I always click on pictures with blankets first. I also think that on other blogs these posts have the most comments. So, what do you think? Is a blanket really the no.1 crochet project? Why?? And if not: what is more popular than blankets? I'd love to read your opinions! :)