Crochet baby blanket patterns

Japanese Lacy Crochet Shawl

28/11/2015 by Dada Filed Under: Scarves and shawls 9 Comments

I love to make and design shawls. I also love to wear them, and to give them away. So, it came as no surprise that I made so many shawls in the last two years.

The story about this shawl begins long before I actually took the crochet hook, and made the first stitches. It begins a few months ago when I went to my nearby yarn shop to buy some yarn needed for the project I was working on, and found myself buying totally unexpectedly and unnecessarily a whole package (10 skeins of 50g) of yarn I instantly fell in love with and just had to have it. When I came home I put the yarn in the yarn cabinet, and almost forgot about it. Recently, I was flipping through my Japanese craft books, and saw the pattern for this lacy shawl. Instantly, I knew that the almost forgotten pink yarn in my yarn cabinet had been purchased precisely for the purpose of that shawl.
The rest of the story wasn’t so much interesting.

I spent many happy hours on my couch, covered with my Smitten blanket, listening to Hay House radio (Radio for your soul), or to one of my favorite podcasts, crocheting this shawl. I always enjoy this part of the process. When I finally decide on the pattern and the yarn, and immerse myself in a meditative rhythm of crochet.

And now, let’s introduce you to this famous pink yarn. It isn’t actually “Tango” or “Golf” yarn from St. George. It’s “Piazza” from Fischer wolle, but having in mind that I bought it in St. George’s yarn store (and they sell only their yarn) I assume that St. George manufacture this yarn for Fischer wolle. The quality is the same as “Tango” yarn. It is 125m/50g 100% cotton yarn. I used 3.5 mm crochet hook.

The other thing that might you interest to know is where can you find the pattern for this shawl. I found the pattern in this Japanese crochet book.

This shawl turned out pretty big, it’s 192 cm (76″) long, and 42 wide (16.5″) without the border! It is huge, actually, but I love it and enjoy wearing it, especially in this cold and rainy weather we have here these days!
Have a nice weekend my friends!

The Smitten Crochet Blanket

20/11/2015 by Dada Filed Under: Crochet blankets, Free crochet patterns 55 Comments

To say that I love this blanket would be an understatement! I utterly adore this blanket! Every time I finish some of my crochet projects I thank the Universe for the fact that I discovered crochet! It was a miracle, a gift which completely changed the course of my life! I’m so grateful for that!

This blanket has been on my to do list for a while, actually, as soon as I saw this post I new that I will make this blanket one day. It has been Love at first sight.For the blanket I used my trusty “Tango” yarn which is 100% cotton yarn 125m/50g (3 or Light in the USA; DK (Double Knit) or 8 ply in the UK; 8 ply in Australia). I really like how this color (light lilac no. 406) emphasizes the beauty of this pattern. I absolutely love this blanket, and I really enjoyed making it! I’s my favorite crochet project so far! Free crochet popcorn granny square pattern

I wanted to make a regular sized blanket, but not too large, because, cotton is heavy, and I didn’t want the blanket to bee too heavy, so I made a “sofa sized” blanket, as I called it. It’s the perfect size to snuggle under it on the sofa with some interesting book, or some awesome crochet project in your hands…

This handsome guy in the picture is my 3-year-old Tibetan terrier Timi. He’s my black & white shadow, and he takes me kindly for a walk to a park every single morning!

The blanket measures 115 x 165 cm (45″ x 65″), and weighs 1400g. It consists of 35 granny squares (5 x 7). I joined the squares with slip stitch, in the same way Haafner joined her squares. You can find the instructions in her post.

And now to get to the point you are waiting for since the beginning of this post, the pattern. Where can you find the pattern for this blanket? That’s good news! The pattern is free and you can find it here, on one of the most beautiful crochet blogs! I’m sure that most of you are familiar with gorgeous byHaafner blog. This is a place I visit often, and I’m always eager to see what new Haafner made with her magical hands. I really love her style, her use of colors, photography, everything actually.

The border. From the beginning, I knew that I want a simple edge. The pattern itself is so rich and full of texture, that I didn’t want to attract attention to the edge, didn’t want the edge to speak its own story. So, it plays just a supporting role here. But also very important role.
First, I made one row of dc with the same color, then I made one row of hdc with white yarn, and then added this simplest border ever. I think it looks nice.

I made this crochet chart for the edge in case you like it. As you can see it’s very simple.

ch-3, skip the next hdc, made Popcorn stitch (4dc) in the next hdc, ch-3, skip the next hdc, make sc in the next hdc. Repeat that along the blanket.

Thank you so much Haafner for this beautiful pattern and for sharing your remarkable work with us! It’s always a great pleasure to visit your beautiful place!

New Primavera Flower Tunic

12/11/2015 by Dada Filed Under: Free crochet patterns 31 Comments

Do you remember my post about New Primavera Square, in which I was talking about how I had started a poncho? Yes, I started a poncho, but somehow it turned out into a tunic. And I’m pretty happy with the result! This is my first tunic ever, which I made without any pattern, just playing around with the squares, using trial and error method, which works quite well for me. Almost all of my color combinations and designs are results of using this method. I’m not afraid of errors. I consider them just as indicators that something didn’t work. Let’s do it again, to see what will work! It’s that simple.

New Primavera flower granny square free pattern

For this tunic I used 100% cotton yarn “Golf” from St. George, and 3.5 mm crochet hook. The yarn is 125m/50g. The square measures approximately 12 x 12 cm (4.7″ x 4.7″)

My New Primavera granny square is almost the same as the old Primavera flower square. I just make some small changes, because I wanted a little bigger square, which in the end proved unnecessary, because the tunic turned out a little to big for me. If I used my old Primavera square it would probably suite me better.

I made this crochet chart and written pattern in case you’d like to use the square for one of your own crochet projects. It’s very easy and quick to make, and you can use it for variety of things, like blankets, pillows, bags, scarfs… And one more good thing. It looks good in two colors as well as in 4 colors (old Primavera Flower square)

Color A is gold, color B is brown

Begin with a magic ring.
Rnd 1: Color A
ch-4 in ring (counts as dc and ch-1), * dc in ring, ch-1; repeat from * 6 more times. Close the ring. Join with slip st to initial ch-4 space (8 dc)
Rnd 2: Color A
Make Beginning Popcorn, then ch-4; * Popcorn in next ch-1 space, chain-4; repeat from * six more times, join with slip stitch to Beginning Popcorn. (8 Popcorn stitches with ch-4 between each Popcorn)
Rnd 3: Color B
Join color B in any ch-4 spaces of the second round, make beginning Cluster (tr3tog – treble crochet three together), ch-3, tr3tog in same ch-4 space, ch-3, * (tr3tog, ch-3, tr3tog) in next ch-4 space, ch-3; Repeat from * 6 more times; Join with slip st to top of beginning Cluster (16 tr3tog with ch-3 between each tr3tog)
Rnd 4: Color B
Make slip st to next ch-3 space, ch-3 (counts as dc), 2 dc in same space, ch-1, * 3 dc in next ch-3 space, ch-1, (3 tr, ch-3, 3 tr) in next ch-3 space, ch-1, (3 dc in next space, ch-1) twice; repeat from * 2 more times, 3 dc in next space, ch-1, (3 tr, ch-3, 3 tr) in next space, ch-1, 3 dc in next space, ch-1, join with slip st to top of initial ch-3.
Rnd 5: Color B
Make slip st in 2 next dc, (sc in next ch-1 space, ch-5) twice, * (sc, ch-5, sc) in next ch-3 space of the corner, (ch-5, sc in next ch-1 space) four times, ch-5; Repeat from * 2 more times, (sc, ch-5, sc) in next ch-3 space, (ch-5, sc in next ch-1 space) twice, ch-5, join with slip st to first sc or make an invisible join.

When I joined all the squares together, the collar looked a little, I don’t know, maybe boring, or somehow unfinished, so I added 6 additional rows. In that way I decreased the collar and added a little finishing touch, which in my opinion raised the collar and the whole tunic to a higher level. I made a crochet chart for the collar, and wrote the pattern, so who knows, maybe some of you will find it useful.

Row 1: sc in ch-5 space, ch-4
Row 2: sc, hdc, dc, ch-1, dc, hdc, sc in ch-4 space
Row 3: sc in ch-1 space, ch-3
Row 4: 5 sc in every ch-3 space
Row 5: sc in third sc, ch-4
Row 6: sc, hdc, dc, Picot-3, dc, hdc, sc in each ch-4 space

In case you aren’t familiar with my “old” Primavera flower square, you can find the detailed step-by-step tutorial with lots of photographs here.

Click here to check out all of Dada’s place free crochet patterns.

This is the end of the story about poncho, I mean, tunic. Till the next story, have a beautiful, colorful and creative week!