Chunky Crochet Baby Blanket – Tutorial

Chunky Crochet Baby Blanket – Tutorial

          

I am loving the mix of yellows and grays for a gender neutral baby collection.  This crocheted blanket compliments the Bumble Bee mary jane shoes and burp cloths.  I know I say it quite a bit but this project was super easy!  Looks amazing and complicated but it’s just a single crochet afghan using 3 strands of bulky yarn together.  I found the inspiration at Aesthetic Nest and there she used a beautiful combination of  pink and gold yarns.  There really is no right or wrong with this project.  I chose 3 different super soft yarns of varying bulkiness.  I did however pay attention to the care instructions on the yarn since I will be gifting it as a baby blanket and wanted to make washing easy.  This was probably one of my favorite blankets that I’ve worked on so far.  It worked up very quickly and was soooo soft and cozy on my lap.
***UPDATE***  I forgot to mention how much yarn a project like this would take.  That depends on the yardage per skein used.  The yarn I used had about 200+ yards each, I used 3 skeins of each color, totalling 9 skeins.  It CAN be a lot of yarn, but to me it was worth it!

For this yellow blanket,  I mixed Bernat Softee Baby Yarn with Caron Simply Soft.  Mixing different weights of yarn give this blanket great texture.  If you find something you like, don’t be afraid to try it out!

 Looks beautiful draped on a rocking chair or crib

Like I promised, this project is super easy and I have the pictures to prove it.  So grab some yarn and follow along!

I grabbed my size P hook (which is one of the larger crochet hooks I found at my local hobby store).  The white hook shown on the left is the P/10mm, the blue giant is a Q/15.75.  This is US hook sizes and I used this set pictured here.  Any jumbo sized hook can be used for this project!

I gathered 3 different collections of yarn I had lying around.  Since yarn weights may vary, gauge doesn’t really matter.  As long as the finished product is the size you desire for the blanket.  These pictures show a second blanket in white/blue/green.  This color combination was an accidental gem since I was just trying to use up yarn that had been left over from previous projects.  The green yarn is a bulky (5) and the other 2 are worsted (4).

Starting with all 3 yarns together, I chained until the length measured about 34″.  (Number of chains will vary depending on yarn being used)

locating the 2nd chain from the hook …

 

…work 1 single crochet into it

Then I continued with 1 single crochet into every chain until the end of the row.

Once at the end of the row, I turned and chained 1. 

Then continued with a single crochet in every chain.  Repeated until I got a good length for a baby blanket. 

This was my progress 6 rows in.  See how quickly it works up?

For any crochet beginners out there wanting to give this a try and are looking for some visual assistance with single crochet, I recommend trying YouTube.  There are some very helpful crochet videos out there!  Just search “single crochet” and follow along.

LOVE how this color combination turned out.  The end result is a thick and plush afghan that can be used as a blanket or even a crib mat to lay a baby on.  I also like it as a floor mat for tummy time!

I love these two projects and I can’t wait to gift them to new babies and deserving mommies.

cr.http://chucksforchancho.com/2012/09/01/chunky-crochet-baby-blanket-tutorial/