Two Easy Crochet Baby Blankets

At just 3 days old, snuggly baby Oliver chills out on a chunky crochet baby blanket that I made for him.  If you're learning to crochet and want to practice on something with a purpose instead of just a swatch, I recommend you try this pattern: the Easy Baby Afghan from Aesthetic Nest.  I'm a fan of Anneliese at Aesthetic Nest (as you may have noticed based on the many projects I've made from the site), and I immediately loved the colors she used in her afghan.  I have more knitting skill than crochet, but since the afghan is just single crochet all the way, I figured I could probably handle it.

Instead of 3 strands of 4 or 5 weight yarn, I used 2 strands of 5-weight chunky yarn (Deborah Norville Serenity Chunky, colors were blue and sailboat, I think).  After some fits and starts with the starting chain and first few rows -- my first attempts were far too wide, so I kept restarting trying to make it smaller and more manageable -- this blanket worked up really quickly.  It's so thick and plush -- the perfect spot for baby's tummy time.  The corners curled up on me, and I'm not sure if that's just due the pattern or a result of my inexpert crocheting, but it's not a huge design flaw that I feel I need to troubleshoot if I ever make this blanket again.

Determined to improve my crocheting, I made a second blanket for Oliver (lucky guy).  This one is the sedge stitch cowl pattern turned into a blanket -- again from Aesthetic Nest.  (See, I told you I liked that site.)  I've made 3 or 4 of these cowls for myself in various colors, and I like the bumpy texture, so I just made it bigger and turned it into a blanket by leaving off the seaming step at the end.

I mixed two colors of my favorite yarn for baby items, Bernat Softee Baby. As with the other blanket, I had to restart this one a few times until I was happy with the size, but the good thing about crochet is that it works up quickly, so ripping out and restarting doesn't feel as futile as when you're knitting.  With this yarn, I like to make the blankets less than 30 inches square.  It's a manageable size to tote around, and it works well for tucking around baby in the car seat or swing.



Here's Oliver at 2 months, as happy as can be.