When I am looking for a project that doesn’t involve a huge amount of thinking and is pretty portable, a crochet blanket comes high on my list. There are definitely some complicated and beautiful patterns out there but this selection has met my criteria of simple, “memorisable” pattern and remnant friendly.
I have made a grand total of five crochet blankets in my life, 4 small baby ones for my children (when I was pregnant with them) and one larger one, my first project, naturally… take my advice and start on a baby blanket! My Mum taught me the basics when I was 19, and she’d been taught by her mother. I love these connections and memories.
Basic Granny Squares
So, baby blanket no.1 and my first biggish blanket were the same basic granny square pattern. I love this pattern because it reminds me of my own Granny and the colourful blankets she had in their home. There’s a YouTube tutorial here from Potter and Bloom on the basics of starting a granny square. All of the baby blankets here were made with DK weight yarn and a 4.5mm or 5mm crochet hook.
There are loads of methods for joining these squares online, most are prettier than my “let’s get this finished” one. If I could give one piece of advice…. don’t make the squares too small or you will spend ages sewing them together. My mum told me this when I was halfway through my big blanket and, yeah… she was right! Oh and I also completely over complicated it because I only let myself make 3 copies of any one square colour combination. It hurts your brain after only 12 squares! 😂
Beachcomber Blanket
For baby blanket no.2 I decided to branch out a little bit from the trusty granny squares. This pattern uses exactly the same stitches as the granny square but has a very different effect. I really enjoyed making this one, the colours are so cosy and vibrant. I found all the colours for this one on Deramores after an intensive and fun search. This is probably the easiest one in this selection and very scrap friendly. I was going to link the pattern but it’s been discontinued… I’ll see if I can find it or write it out again myself.
Simple One Stitch Chevron
Baby blanket no.3 is a simple one stitch chevron pattern from the Ansley Designs blog. This was fun to make, and once I got the chevron pattern set up it was very easy to do little bits here and there.
I find crochet so much more “mum-friendly” than knitting. There’s only ever one stitch on the go, it’s easier to remember patterns and I’m not scared that my kids will hurt themselves on a huge knitting needle. I’m a bit of a worrier I suppose but, hey, just being honest.
This one was made with what I already had in my stash. So lots of white, a fair bit of navy and a bit of mint green from baby blanket no.1. I also finished my big blanket just after I finished this one. The big blanket only took me 7 years, most of it spent sitting in a cupboard. Nesting is brilliant for finishing projects 😉.
Millstone Stitch
Anyway, baby blanket no.4 was a pattern I had pinned on Pinterest years before, it’s so pretty but simpler than it looks. It’s called the Millstone stitch and there’s a YouTube video tutorial on Potter and Bloom’s channel. The written instructions are on their blog here. This blanket has such gorgeous colours and everything was already in my stash. I ran out of the cream yarn near the end and used white instead. It’s slightly noticeable but I didn’t see the point in getting more. So many old quilts and blankets are similar and it’s lovely seeing the story woven in the fabric!
I hope this round up of tried and tested easy crochet patterns inspires you to try crochet, or, even inspires you to make something creative this weekend. I am not a huge knitter/ crocheter but I really enjoy it when I’m in the mood for something slower.
Kathelle x
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