I'm so happy with the way this child's blanket turned out!
I had 2 motivations behind making this blanket. My daughter wanted a Santa outfit, but I haven't made clothes yet and I didn't want to take a long time figuring out how to make it. The other reason is that she won't wear a sheet or blanket at night and now that it's getting colder I thought I could bribe her with a blanket that has a Mrs. Clause design on it.
So far she's very happy with it so I think it worked!
For this project I used Heartland yarn from Lion Brand Yarn. This yarn is "inspired by the natural beauty of the American landscape", and it's a super soft acrylic. The colors are sooooo beautiful, they really do make you think of mountains, prairies, and oceans white with foam. :}
The yarn used for the necklace, belt, and edging is Lion Brand Wool-Ease White/Multi color. It's a sparkling yarn that is very easy to work with. Last year I bought similar yarn, from another company that was red and white to make a skirt for my daughter. It was the most annoying yarn I've ever tried to use. The sparkling piece of the yarn kept unraveling as I was crocheting and it sticks out all over the skirt.
Up to that point it was the only yarn like that that I had any experience with. I'm glad that I went ahead and tried Lion Brand's. Now I know they don't all unravel this way.
I liked Lion Brand's yarn so much that I used the rest of the skein for the trim of the blanket. Love the sparkle!
The other yarn I used is for the dress, hat, and shoe trim. It's Lion Brand's Fun Fur. Again, easy to work with and when I had to rip out some stitches it was not difficult at all. I think it looks especially good on the bottom trim of the dress!
Now to the pattern! This blanket was made doing corner to corner crochet. It is exactly what it sounds like. You start at one corner and build up the height and width as you crochet from one corner to the other and back and forth.
This is my first attempt at doing corner to and I *love* it! It was so fun to see the blanket build up so quickly when you start out. Then you get into the color changes, which keeps things interesting. Then you eventually get back into just being green again and before you know it it's finished!
I definitely will be doing more of these in the future because they are so fun and you can make pictures or designs to look however you'd like. The possibilities really are endless.
All the information needed to make this pattern is below and in a tutorial for C2C in general and a short walk through for this specific blanket showing the color changes.
Before any edging is added the blanket is 42 inches high and 30 inches wide. With the edging it is 46 inches high and 34 inches wide. If you prefer to make it without the edging but you want it wider you can add more green to the sides. The rows will not be numbered the same however.
Here a picture without the edging. I think it looks nice either way.
I hadn't originally planned on adding an edge but I thought it should be a bit wider and I also really wanted to put more of the White/Multi yarn into the blanket since I liked it so much.
Items Needed:
J-10 (6 mm) crochet hook
3 skeins Lion Brand Heartland - Cuyahoga Valley
2 skeins Lion Brand Heartland - Redwood
1 skein Lion Brand Heartland - Black Canyon (since not much of this is used you could replace it with scrap black yarn)
1 skein Lion Brand Fun Fur - White (dress trim)
1 skein Lion Brand Wool-Ease - White/Multi (Sparkling yarn)
Notes:
When switching colors, don't carry the yarn over more than 2 "groups" of double crochet. I've attempted to note when you will need to add a skein, and when you can fasten off in the pattern area below.
Before you begin using the Fun Fur you will want to cut two 5.5 foot pieces and two 7 foot pieces because it is used in more than one spot at a time. This way you don't need to buy two skeins of the yarn.
Pattern:
The easiest way to follow the chart is to print it out and mark off the diagonal rows as you finish them. Or if you're feeling brave you can follow it from the screen. :}
Legend for Chart:
Green - Cuyahoga Valley
Red - Redwood
White - White Fun Fur
Black - Black Canyon
Yellow - White/Multi (Sparkling Yarn)
Row 18 - Add 2nd skein green
Row 25 - Use 5.5 foot Fun Fur (boot); Fasten off red skein; Add 3rd green skein
Row 27 - Fasten off 1 green skein
Row 28 - Add 2nd red skein
Row 32 - Use 5.5 foot Fun Fur (boot)
Row 36 - Down to 2 green skeins; Down to 1 red skein (just the skirt)
Row 37 - Use 7 foot Fun Fur (for sleeve); Add 1 green skein
Row 39 - Add 1 red skein
Row 44 - After red skein for shirt fasten off red (add right above belt); After green skein under arm fasten off green
Row 45 - Fasten off belt buckle yarn.
Row 47 - Fasten off red skein from bottom of dress
Row 50 - Fasten off necklace yarn
Row 53 - Fasten off bottom green skein
Row 54 - Use 3 green skeins, use 7 foot Fun Fur (for sleeve)
Row 57 - Fasten off bottom green skein, fasten off shirt red skein
Row 59 - Fasten off Fun Fur on hat
Row 64 - Add Fun Fur for end of hat
Row 67 - Only using green
Remember to fasten off any yarn if it's going to go over more than 2 "groups" of double crochet (Chain 3 and 3 Double crochets is a group). This is only in a few spots so it doesn't create a lot of ends to weave in. Anytime you bring the yarn along the back you can work over it with the double crochets. Just leave a little slack for this.
If you want to add the edging, it's double crochets all around. For the first row - 2 double crochets in each "group", 1 double crochet on each side of the group, and 3 double crochet in the corners. The second and 3rd rows are 1 double crochet in each stitch with 3 double crochets in each corner.
I can't get the sparkle to show up very well in pictures unfortunately. The White/Multi yarn look much prettier than the photos show.
What will you crochet today?
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