Crochet Blanket

Today I am going to teach you how to make a crochet blanket. Once you get the hang of the stitch that you are doing, it is really easy and won't take you very long. I love to crochet, it's fun and simple. When your done, you have a nice warm blanket to use when it's cold. I hope you enjoy.

Before you get started crocheting, you need to either grab all of your supplies from your house or take a quick run to the store. There is only 3 supplies.

Supplies:

- You need scissors to cut the yarn when your finished

- You need a fluffy warm yarn that will be comfy for a blanket. I use Bernat blanket yarn that is from Michael's, but you can also get the same yarn at Walmart.There's a variety of different patterns. I am using the one with different shades of blue. You can use any pattern that you would like to. It's 100% Polyester, and approximately 220 yards/201 meters. It is super bulky.

- You will need a size 8 mm crochet hook. I got my hook on amazon in a set, but you can get them single at Micheal's or in set. I prefer to use the soft grip crochet hook. It is easier for beginners to use and it doesn't hurt your fingers as bad when you are crocheting for a while.

The first step to making the crochet blanket is making the slip knot. How you do this, is you grab the end of the string and then with your good hand you are going to wrap it around your middle finger and pointer finger on your bad hand. Make sure a little bit of the end of the yarn is hanging over your middle finger. Next, go in between both of your finger and grab the middle of the yarn and pull it half way through. Then carefully take both of your fingers out, but still holding the loop with your good hand. Take both of your fingers that were in the loop and grab the end piece of the yarn with the actual yarn. Pull the loop and the yarn to make it a little tighter but not to tight. Then grab your hook and put it into the loop. Grab the end piece of the yarn with the hook on your good hand and take your other hand and grab the actual yarn and pull it so it's tighter around the hook. You want to be able to still move it up and down and have a little bit of space.

The next step is to make a crochet chain. However long you make this chain, is going to be how long your blanket is. You are going to start by, holding your crochet hook and the end piece of the yarn.(make sure the end piece is around 5-7 centimeters, just make sure that its long enough to hold but not to long.) You are going to garb the yarn (not the end piece the actual yarn) and loop it towards your self. Put the yarn in between your pointer finger and your middle finger, then with your thumb and pointer finger, your going to hold the knot and pull the yarn through. Pull it up a little bit so it's loose around the hook. Then you are going to keep doing that until you want to stop. This is not going to be a big blanket for me so it's as long as one of my arms which is 45 stitches. You want to make sure that you are counting your stitches or if you don't your blanket won't be a square or rectangle it will be a triangle. You want to make sure that the stitches are how you want them and loose, if they are tight it won't work as well. To do that just make sure that the string around the hook is loose. The looser the string the looser the stitch but you don't want it to loose or it won't work. As you work farther down the chain your are going to the previous stitches instead of the end yarn because it will be at the bottom.

Once you have your chain as long as you want your blanket to be. You are going to start doing single crochets which is going to make the blanket. You are going to put the hook into the last stitch you just did, so theirs 2 pieces of yarn on your hook. Then take your yarn and pull it over the hook towards you, it will not be a full loop, so don't worry it's not suppose to be. Hold your chain with the hand that's not holding the hook. Make sure the yarn is in the hook and pull it through just the first loop. Now you will have 2 loops on your hook again, take the yarn and wrap it towards you again. Make sure the yarn is in between your middle finger and your pointer finger and your holding the chain with your thumb and pointer finger and pull the yarn through both of the loops. That is the single crochet. Then keep doing that same stitch until you get to the end of the chain. Make sure that you are keeping it a little loose or it won't turn out as well. Always make sure that you are counting your stitches and have the same amount on every row or it won't work. (I had that happen and had to start over, so make sure you have the same amount so you don't have to start over too.)

You want your blanket to look like a square or rectangle not a triangle, so you are going to need to make sure that you are moving up to the next row correctly. You will do the single crochet as far to the end as you can get without running out of stitches underneath you to do. You are going to go to the side and do a single crochet into the stitch below you, then make sure that they both line up, if not then go into it again. This connects the top row to the bottom so you have a square or rectangle blanket. Then flip the blanket over and go back the other way like you did for the first row. You just keep doing this until you get where you want to stop or your yarn runs out. If that happens you can just add more yarn. All you do is go into your next stitch, loop the yarn around and bring it through, then forget about the other yarn so if there some left just cut it off. Your going to put your new yarn on the hook and pull it through both the loops. Then just continue as far as you want to go.

After you have done the whole entire blanket and made it as big as you want, made sure that all the rows have the same amount stitches and it looks good to you. You just have to finish it off. You are going to go into the the last crochet stitch and do one single crochet.(Go into it and bring the yarn around and pull through.) Then cut off about 2-3 inches, take you hook and pull the yarn all the way through and tighten it. Then loop in into the crochet stitch below, do that in a diagonal line so that the end piece of the yarn doesn't come out. Also do that with the end yarn at the beginning of the blanket.

Some tips:

Make sure that you are counting your stitches as you go or just making sure that you are crocheting to the end and connecting it with your bottom row.

Keep the stitches loose and after every couple rows just pull it a little to loosen it.

There you go. You made your own blanket!

I hope you enjoyed me teaching you how to make a crochet blanket and I hope it turned out for you.