Crochet Blanket Madness

        A crochet blanket is the perfect addition to any bedroom, keeps you warm in winter, colourful in summer and hides all sorts of evils in a student bedroom. My mother made this blanket for me before I went to university and I used every year to decorate my room and keep me warm in those winters when I couldn't afford heating!

Since returning home I have made my own crochet blankets, slippers and flowers. As one of my friends commented recently, I am never seen with a crochet hook out of my hands!  So what do you need to start crocheting a blanket: 

• wool of various colours (use double knit not chunky knit wools) 
• a crochet hook (for a blanket I would use a 400mm/size 8 hook- they will be labeled)

• to sew together a large eyed tapestry needle

 To begin crocheting a blanket you need to start with a basic square shape, here is an excellent video by All One Crochet, to get you going.

You will need to learn two main stitches, a double stitch and a chain stitch:

Chain stitch (see right):

1.  Make a loop with the wool. 
2. Put the hook through the loop and wrap a section of wool round the hook
3. Pull the extra wool through the loop to make a new one. 
4. Repeat.

Double Crochet (see below):
 

1. Make a loop in the wool.
2. Put the hook through the loop
3. Wrap an extra piece of wool round the hook (so you now have two loops on your hook: see fig 1)
4. Put the loops into the stitch or hole where you want the double stitch
5. Wrap a third piece of wool around the hook (see fig 2)
6. Pull all the wool back through the stitch or hole. 
7. Pull a final loop of wool through two stitches.
8. Repeat, pulling another loop through the final two stitches. 
9. You should be left with one final loop on the hook. 

Here is a video which explains this stitch again for you, although if you are starting a square ignore her instructions about chain stitching first.

The double stitch is complicated but once you get into the routine of making crochet squares the pattern becomes quite routine. I am not going to lie though, I quite often go very very wrong with my crochet squares and will often take out an entire row when I've decided I hate the colour/size of stitch/pattern I've created....damn being a perfectionist!!

You need to decide fairly early on if you want to make a sqaure blanket, where you create one square and just keep (swimming) crocheting until it is the required size or if you want to create a series of smaller squares and then attach them together.  I love a  multi-coloured mini square blanket liek the one below, I attach each square together using black or white wool to create a barrier between the colours and reduce any clashes (although check out the pink and green combo on top row below!)
   

Once I've completed a few squares I lay them out on the floor to start to develop the pattern for my finished blanket. I like to see which colours I have over-used or what style squares I could add to make them more interesting. If any one has any ideas about what I could put in the middle of the blanket below please let me know as my crochet brain has gone to mush and I can't think what to make!

 I currently have one large blanket on the go (see below) and want to complete a small knee-sized blanket too for my Grandma who has been unwell. The large blanket is in the process of having a white row added round each square and being sewn together, unfortuantly I find this process really boring and I keep putting it off so may be a while till this one is finished off properly! Must stop typing and start crocheting....

Happy Crafting!
L  x