If you’re looking for an easy, quick baby blanket project, I’d like to introduce you to my Easy Clusters Baby Blanket pattern. I started this baby blanket in June of 2020 during a camping trip in Zion National Park with our youngest son and his wife. The pretty colors of the yarn inspired me to design a pattern using the 4 colors of yarn, plus a white.
The pattern is a 2-row repeat with a 2-stitch repeat, as well. That means you can customize the size of your baby blanket (or doll blanket or full-size blanket) with this pattern! You can use the same colors as I did or customize the colors any way you want! This would even make a great scrap-busting project!
I purposely designed the blanket with less ends to weave in by working 2 right-side rows, followed by 2 wrong-side rows. The white (or main color) is carried up the side edge to be used again instead of finishing it off. The contrasting colors are finished off at the end of each row using them (every other row).
This past week, my husband and I filmed aYouTube video where I demonstrate working the blanket from the beginning chain to several repeats of the 2-row repeat in the pattern, including how to work the clusters. I also demonstrate how to carry the main color yarn up the side edge, crochet the edging and weave in the ends securely and professionally. In the video, I made a doll-size blanket to use up some of the scraps of contrasting colors that I had left over from the baby blanket. I think the doll blanket will make a nice Christmas gift for my granddaughter, who turned 7 years old this past summer!
Check out the pattern page hereto see what supplies I used and purchase the low-cost pattern. Get started on your baby blanket, doll blanket or full-size blanket today!
For the past 2-3 months, I’ve been working very hard to fine-tune the pattern for my newest crochet pattern, “Mom’s Favorite Baby Blanket”! I enlisted the help of 4 pattern testers on Ravelry and their input was “invaluable”!!! They made great suggestions for improving the pattern and making it easier to understand, since the construction for this blanket is not your “typical” crochet construction!
If you’ve read anything about this pattern, you’ll know that I designed this pattern last year after my mom passed away. She had a favorite baby blanket pattern that she liked to make for new babies in the family. It was from a kit and was worked in 7 strips with 19 motifs in each strip. That made for a lot of seaming and tons of ends to weave in (7 x 19 x 2 = 266 + 2 ends for the edging = 268 ends)! Who wants to weave in that many ends, let alone sew strips together with 19 separate ends (so the colors would match)? Not me!
Last year, the month before my mom passed away, she started one of her favorite baby blankets for my granddaughter. The month after my mom passed away, I finished it for my mom and gave it to my son and daughter-in-law in May, right before my granddaughter was born in June! They know how special this baby blanket is to me and they cherish it (at least I hope they do!). I certainly didn’t enjoy all the time spent sewing the strips together and weaving in the ends! And I know a lot of other crocheters don’t like either of these things, either! So I set out to design a baby blanket that looked like my mom’s favorite baby blanket, but without all the seaming and weaving in ends. And I think I hit the nail on the head! Here are close up photos of my mom’s baby blanket and mine:
Mom’s Original Baby Blanket
My Redesigned Baby Blanket
My redesigned baby blanket still contains 7 motifs in each section and 19 sections of motifs. However, there are NO strips to crochet and NO seaming to be done in this new baby blanket design! There are only 38 ends + 2 ends for the edging (= 40 ends total) to weave in on the whole baby blanket! This is a HUGE improvement from 268 ends, don’t you think? That’s an 85% savings on ends, which translates to lots of time saved and leaves more time for crocheting! Yea!!!
I used DK/light worsted weight yarn for my baby blanket, which came out to be 34” wide x 48” high. Yours can be made wider and/or higher, if desired, by following the instructions for resizing the blanket. The blanket is made with basic crochet stitches: chains, double crochets, single crochets and slip stitches.
The pattern includes 2 symbol crochet charts: one for right-handed and one for left-handed crocheters. The instructions include the appropriate differences for right-handed and left-handed crocheters, as well.
With the help and suggestions from my pattern testers, I decided to take lots of step-by-step photos for this pattern, to help YOU be successful! I think we all know how time-consuming photos can be, but I really think they were needed in this pattern, since the construction is different than most other crochet patterns!
In the pattern, there are 43 step-by-step photos for the main part of the blanket, 46 step-by-step photos for the edging and 10 more photos showing how many chain spaces you should have in various places in the pattern (so you’ll know if you’ve made a mistake and you can fix it before it gets worse)! That’s a total of 99 photos to help teach various aspects of the pattern in a visual manner and to be able to know if you’re working it correctly or not! Here’s a sample of one of the photos in the pattern:
Sample of a Step-by-Step photo in the pattern
With all of the additional photos, the pattern is now 30 pages long! I know what you’re thinking! That’s too many pages to print out without using a ton of ink/toner! But have no fear! Included in every purchase is a shorter 14-page pattern with a few photos, the full written pattern and the symbol crochet charts, but without the additional step-by-step photos for printing. Both pdfs (the 30-page version and the 14-page version) are available for download with purchase of the pattern.
I’m releasing this pattern on a special day to me. Today, April 20, would have been the 29th birthday of my daughter in heaven. Her name was Rebecca. She was born with a closed pulmonary valve in her heart and lived a little less than 6 months. My granddaughter, who my mom starting crocheting her favorite baby blanket for last year before she joined my daughter in heaven, is named Rubekah, in honor of my daughter in heaven. Here’s a photo of my granddaughter and the blanket my mom started, in case you haven’t seen the dozens of photos of her that I’ve shared on social media already:
Rubekah on the Baby Blanket that my Mom started and I finished
Because of the extensive step-by-step tutorial photos in this pattern, I’m charging a little bit more than my usual patterns. I think you’ll find this small increase is well worth it in terms of you being successful in crocheting this baby blanket for your favorite little one! This pattern would also work equally as well for a full-size afghan! Just follow the instructions for changing the size of the blanket and use whatever weight yarn and an appropriate size crochet hook you desire!
The pattern with the 2 pdfs, including 2 symbol crochet charts, complete written instructions and over 90 step-by-step photos, is available for purchase for just $6.95 here.
If you’re ever stuck on something in the pattern for any reason, please send me a message on my website, on Ravelry (I’m “crochetarchitect” on Ravelry) or through Facebook and ask for help. I’m happy to help anyone with questions about my patterns!
If you purchase this pattern and make the baby blanket, I’d love to know what you think about the additional photos! And I’d love to see photos of your finished baby blankets from this pattern, as well!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at my “Mom’s Favorite Baby Blanket” pattern.
