Granny Stripe Baby Blanket Tutorial Part 1

Wouldn’t it be nice if I was with it enough to have alllll the pictures and alllll the pattern steps and allllll the explanations written up and ready to go at the same time? A girl can dream. But I figured it would be better to share what I do have ready, right now, instead of waiting until everything’s photographed and edited and typed up. Not to mention that a post containing the entire project, one itty bitty step at a time, would be roughly 6 miles long and take me 482 hours to write and you’d burn out all your finger muscles scrolling through something that tremendous. I don’t want to be held responsible for any scrolling-finger injuries.

So today’s Part 1 post will have the pattern and tutorial to make a cute granny stripe baby blanket, the Part 2 post next week will show you 2 neat little time-saving tricks to speed up the process and make things go a little faster, and the Part 3 post will show you how to do the cute wide scalloped border.

Part 2: Timesaving Tips
Part 3: Scalloped Border

I definitely can’t take any sort of original designer credit today . . . granny stripes and squares are just about some of the oldest patterns in existence. My goal here is just to present it in a simple step-by-step way along with pictures, so if you’re newer to crochet (or are a visual learner), it’ll hopefully be made simple enough to tackle. (But the border pattern is my own, so I’ll toot my own horn loud and proud when that portion of the pattern is ready to go. Get your earplugs ready.)

Supplies

- worsted weight yarn in desired colors (for my blanket here, I’m using ‘I Love This Yarn’ from Hobby Lobby in an aqua shade and Red Heart in a really light, silvery gray—and I lost both of their labels ages ago so I can’t tell you any more than that. I’m rocking this tutorial so far! Pinterest fame, here I come!) I’m going to be showing you how to make this blanket in 2 alternating colors (changing colors every 2 rows), but you can certainly use as many colors as you’d like. For the blanket size I’m showing you how to make (a baby blanket roughly 35” square), 1 skein of each color is just the right amount.

- I/5.5 mm crochet hook

- scissors and a large-eye blunt needle to weave in ends

Step-by-Step

Start by making a chain in the color you want your first stripe to be (for a how-to on making a chain, click HERE). You’ll need your number of total chains to be a multiple of 3, plus an extra 2 chains at the end (for turning). You can make your blanket as big or small as you want by making a longer or shorter starting chain—the length of the starting chain will determine the finished width of your blanket (minus the border). For mine, a baby blanket that will be roughly 35” wide (including the border), I chained 74 (a multiple of 3 [72] + 2).

When your chain is the length you need it to be, make a single crochet into the second chain from the hook and in each chain across until you reach the end of the row. Work these single crochets into just the top loop of each chain. (If you need help with single crochets, click HERE.)

Chain 3 and turn your work. This chain of 3 will act as your first double crochet.

This row of the blanket will start and finish with a cluster of 2 double crochets, but since our chain of 3 counts as the first double crochet, we just need to add one more double crochet. So work 1 double crochet into the very first stitch of the row, the one that’s as close as you can get to the chain of 3, as shown below. (If you need help making a double crochet, click HERE.)

Even though it’s really just a chain 3 and 1 double crochet, we’re counting it as 2 double crochet stitches. Good? Good.

Now, skip the next 2 stitches, and work 3 double crochets all into the 3rd stitch. Hopefully you can see this clearly enough in this next picture. So far, we’ve got the chain 3 + double crochet in the first stitch (on the far right of the picture below), then 2 empty stitches with nothing in them, then 3 double crochets all in the following stitch.

Repeat this pattern all across the row. Skip 2 stitches, then work 3 double crochets into the next stitch. So each ‘cluster’ of 3 double crochets should be separated by 2 empty stitches, which leaves a little open space between each cluster.

When we reach the end of the row, we want the final cluster to match the opening cluster, which was 2 double crochets (remember, the chain of 3 + 1 double crochet = 2 double crochets). So instead of working 3 double crochets into that final stitch as we have been doing across the row, just work 2 double crochets into it. This way, the start and end of the row will match.

On to the second row. Instead of starting and ending with 2 double crochets as the last row did, this row will start and end with 1 double crochet. (From now on, each row will alternate between starting/ending with 2 dcs, or starting/ending with 1 dc. Remember that! Every row that starts and ends with 2 double crochets should be followed by a row that starts and ends with 1 double crochet, and vice versa.) Chain 3 and turn your work—this chain of 3 once again counts as our first double crochet.

For the remainder of the blanket, we won’t be working into any of the actual stitch loops. Instead, we’ll work into the open spaces between each of the clusters of the previous row. Work 3 double crochets into the first space between clusters of the previous row (see picture below). Continue across the row, working 3 double crochets into the space between each of the clusters of the previous row.

Again, we want the start and end of the row to match each other. When you get to the end of the row, work 1 double crochet between the 2 stitches of that final cluster. So this row started and ended with 1 double crochet (with the chain of 3 at the other end of the row acting as the first double crochet).

Now it’s time for a color change! Pull a loop of your other color through, leaving a long enough tail to weave in later. Chain 3 with the new color, keeping the previous color pulled snug.

Turn your work, and work your one double crochet into the first space of the previous row (making our first cluster of two).

Continue working across the row, working 3 double crochets into each space between the clusters of the previous row. When you get to the end of the row, end with 2 double crochets in the final space, so it matches the start of the row.

Now just keep repeating the rows you’ve already done, making sure each row alternates between starting and ending with 2 double crochets, and starting and ending with just 1 double crochet.

I’ll be back next week with Part 2, sharing 2 little tricks that will make the process go a bit faster—how to switch colors easily, and how to hide some yarn tails as you go to end up with fewer tails to weave in at the end. Happy crocheting, my granny friends!