awww... poor guy.

Would it work to sew it onto a piece of fleece? When our Girl Scout troop made a patchwork knit/crochet squares blanket, it was so holey that we thought we'd have to give up the idea, but my co-leader came up with the idea of sewing it onto a fleece backing... makes it much more durable....

Thanks for the idea, bfmomma. Lots of folks have made all sorts of great suggestions each time I've posted about S's blankie. But he loves it just the way it is. It could have been saved many times, if he'd have let me stitch on edgings or backings or reinforce or reknit areas. No, he wants his blankie, especially that one corner, exactly as it is. It's full of holes now, but he wouldn't change a thing.

Poor guy. My oldest has a blankie also. Hers is cashmere and silk. She sucks on it and it is now felted. Worked out nicely. When the corners get ratty, I can trim them. She sucks on it to go to sleep, so you can imagine how ratty (and stinky) it gets.

What a resourceful mommy! Now, pls show us what you made w/the orange/pink mystery yarn project!

The first lesson in letting go is the hardest.....

It is so bittersweet with them growing up.

Oh, poor S! But doesn't it make your heart feel good to know he has loved (to death) handknit items from the beginning?

Hey, sewing Sunday is back ;-)

What a well loved blankie! How about cutting off the top 4 inches or so (after stitching, of course), and putting on a satin edging. I know, it won't feel and taste the same, but lots of kids love satin edges. And, he can then work on another corner! When my daughter was too young to care (or maybe it was young enough to be a little flexible) I cut her favorite blanket into one half and two quarters--three pieces. I saved one quarter in the closet and the others were around and used. If one piece was lost or worn out, I had a back up. Worked beautifully!

Yeah, Gail, I wanted to do something like that about a year ago but S didn't want the blankie altered in any way. Now it's not just the first four inches that are falling apart - it's the whole blankie, from all directions, the middle, and all edges. There's not a quarter to save! S has a smaller version of the big blankie but he's not interested in it. It doesn't have any holes, he says!

My cousin still has a well-loved bunny-blanket (one corner was a flat terry-cloth-like bunny head, two other corners were paws) that was given to her as a gift when she was born 26 years ago. Bunny was patched many times over. Now bunny lives in a small satchel. Maybe the blankies could take up residence in something like a duvet cover?

That reminds me of the time my daughter's bunny needed emergency surgery- his arm fell off and she (then age 4) asked me to "knit him another one." (I did, of course!) She also asked me to knit him a sweater to keep his puff (stuffing) from falling out. Since then she's often asked me to knit broken things back together- even items that can't be knitted. She thinks it fixes everything!

Aw. Blankies are just the sweetest things. My sons are 14 and 12, and the blankies are still around. The other day the 12 year old came from home from school really sick with a fever and we had to make a run to the doctor for a strep test. He needed the blankie in the car, although he wouldn't take it inside the office. My 14 year-old's blankie isn't really a blankie at all, it's a piece of black satin that was a Batman cape one Halloween. It lives down under the covers of his bed, and I put it back every time I change the sheets.

A friend of my younger son's spent the night with us a while back and he had something absolutely adorable. It was just a mass of yarn that had been sewn inside one of those small mesh laundry bags. I know it was a blankie once.

I agree with sewing it onto another piece of fabric. That should give him a little more time with it. I'm a bit older than him :o) and still have my teddy, although not the one I had originally, that one's long been repaired and put in a safe place. Poor little man.

All these wonderful stories about blankies make me a bit sad to know that my 15 yo didn't have one. Not a blankie he adored, not a knitted one. Maybe that is why he is extremely attached to a ratty, smelly, faded black band t-shirt now. I wonder???

I had a blankie just like S's when I was his age ... I loved it until it was a little bitty scrap of wool about 2" square, which I lost frequently, causing many bedtime meltdowns. My mother still mutters darkly about this period in her life.

You've done yeoman's work saving S's blankie time and again, and you can be sure he'll never forget it.

Extra time to say goodbye can really faciliate the grieving process. I'm sure it will still be sad to part, but a little preparation can go a long way.

Aww-poor guy. When m daughter's favourite blankie strated to disintegrate, and no amount of sewing would help, heroic measures were needed!!!!! So, I knit up a pillow (with a zipper on one end) out of similar yarn (and pattern), folded up the poor blankie, stuffed it inside the pillow. So- when she needed "the original"(you know, bandaids, shots at the doctor, monsters under the bed), she slid the zipper open and reached in. Otherwise, she was ok with the "pillow". Would the boys be okay with pillows???? (My daughter now calls the pillow her time capsule).

OK, so is there a portion of it that you can cut and then maybe border with fleece or fabric? Kinda like picture framing it so that the center is still his blankie but surrounded by supporting fabric?

bummer about the blankie ... i'm sure your heroic measures were appreciated. :^) love the blankie pattern. i have a friend who is expecting. you've probably been asked before - are you able to share the patt?

Can you make another blankie, son of blankie?! My brother had "Horsie" when he was a kid and it turns out that there were several generations of Horsie, each sewn to replace the previous...

I'm going to tell one on my *now adult* son. His "pet" was a soft woven blanket (from my days as a weaver). After several 'reductions' as the edges frayed, and finally bindings of satin, by the time he was in school it was only about a foot square. I felted it hard and made it into a 'pocket' bear about 6 or 7 inches tall.

That bear went to church camp (hidden in the pillow case), boy scout campouts (safely buried in the very bottom of the sleeping bag) and to the National Military Drill team championships (in a natty Marine Corp cover "borrowed" from his gf's bear and keeping company with her bear in her backpack so as not to impune it's owner's machismo).

The night before he left for boot camp, he gave the bear to his girlfriend to 'keep until I get back'.

Kids are so funny with their 'lovies', it wouldn't surprise me any if there are mangled remains hidding in more than one pack, pocket or helmet in Iraq - and not all of them belonging to females. And if the magic still works there, more power to them.

You are such a good mom to do all of this -- and I have to believe that it will make the eventual parting much easier to bear, because he knows you really understand how much the blankie mattered.

awww...This reminded me of my blankies that I kept with me until I was ten I think (this isn't weird. I am twenty and I still sleep with YellowBunny every night). I loved them so much and kept them around so long that my mom began referring to them as "the rediculous things." I know how it feels to not want to let go of the blankie.

Blankie has had a good run but you've done all you can do.

Oy...how about frogging back and re knitting

It'll be such a loss....hope he can cope with it

When my daughter was 17, she lost her bunny in a hotel room in Hawaii on a school trip. For graduation, I commissioned a watercolor by Melissa Sweet (children's illustrator - you can check her website) of White Bunny. She did a beautiful piece of White Bunny on Lost Animal Beach.
So there are other ways of honoring such a loved item. Maybe a photo collage of all the pictures of him with his blankie? or a scrap book?
He does understand that without "unpleasant" emergency measures, he won't have it next week?

Have you ever seen those scarf patterns where you take a piece of water soluble stabalizer, lay out a grid of yarns and ribbons and then another piece of stabalizer and sew in stripes then, well, perpendicular stripes, then wet the whole thing.... this might help and not involve another piece of fabric to disrupt his tactile love :)

when that happened to Maya's blankie, we knit a pillow to put it in, so she could still love the old one..... now she has a special pillow on her bed full o blankie love. When I was little, my Mom did the same thing, but she turned mine into the stuffing for a pet snake! His name's Sammy and he now lives on Maya's bed too.

Goodness that is a well loved Blankie.
Makes me nostalgic. My little brother had a blankie that he loved to pieces too.
I think I will knit up a Blankie for someone next...
I think the pillow idea is ingenious - would S go for it?

all i can say... is poor S... but i am sure that he will understand, at one point in time, that you did everything you could to save it, and that will make all the difference.

We just had to finally take DJ's handknit blankie away last night. While he was playing in his room, waiting for his bath water to be ready, he got his arms stuck in the holes that he has created in it over time. He had bad marks on his skin from it being so tight around his arms. I guess there is a point where safety becomes an issue, and we reached that point last night!

oh no, poor S and his blankie... you know those memento quilts? Made from old t-shirts, sweatshirts, sweaters, etc? Maybe S could be convinced to save what's left and put it aside to be included in such a memento quilt. Or keep the sturdiest portion of blankie as a stuffed animal blankie.

Have you read "Owen" by Kevin Henkes? It was given as a gift to my son, Owen. It addresses the issue of blankies getting old well. It may be a comfort to S.

My sister had a hideous mustard yellow turtleneck sweater (fine gauge acrylic, commercially made) that she would not let go of until she was well over eighteen. She didn't wear it, she snuggled with it.

Could you frog the blankie and save what yarn you can, and then combine old yarn and new to knit a new blankie? S seems pretty sharp and I'd think he'd understand that.

"Loved to pieces"... Now I see where that expression came from.