Tag: Wedding

An acquaintance who had been in countless wedding once showed me a crocheted blanket that a bride had made her.  She gushed about how that gift was the most meaningful bridesmaid gift she had ever received.  Since I crochet, I tucked that little tidbit of information away for later.  When I got engaged, I pushed my fiance to help me pick out colors so I could start on the pile of blankets I was planning on making.

I decided to make blankets for our three bridesmaids and both sets of parents.  I had to make five blankets, so I needed to find an afghan pattern that I could make fairly quickly.  I have made many afghans that took me months to make.  I didn’t have that much time.  I had an afghan pattern pinned named “Super Quick Throw.”  The blanket was crocheted with four strands of yarn held together as one with a giant hook.  That’s about as quick as one can hope for.  The blankets crocheted beautifully.

I do have a few tips:

• The pattern is available free on the Red Heart website.
• I bought yarn in bulk in our wedding colors.  I chose acrylic yarn because it holds up well and for the price.  It crocheted into a stiff, scratchy blanket.  However, after washing and drying each blanket once, they were completely transformed.  They became pliable and soft.
• The pattern calls for a hook size P-16 (11.5 mm).  I couldn’t find a hook this size and ended up with a 10 mm hook.  I adjusted by crocheting to the correct size rather than the correct number of stitches.  The pattern is easy, so it wasn’t hard to do.  The rows that require a certain number of stitches have a three stitch repeat.  There is a two stitch “border” on each side.  This means that your starting row should have a total stitch number that is a multiple of 3 plus 4 stitches.  (As written, the pattern calls for 58 stitches.  This is a multiple of 3 (54/3=18) plus 4.)  I don’t remember how many stitches I used.  I think it was 70.  Whatever gets you to a 48 inch wide blanket.
• I used the no foundation row starting technique instead of the chain start technique in the pattern.  Here is a good tutorial.  This technique keeps your tension from being off in the first row and is easier to measure your 48 inches.
• With the same “size verses stitches” philosophy, you should repeat Rows 2-7 until the blanket is the length you want.  The pattern calls for 58 inches.  I wanted my blanket to be at least 60 inches so I repeated until I finished on a Row 7 with a length greater than 60 inches.
• The edges of the blanket turned out a little jagged.  I finished the blanket off with a border.  I slip stitched in each stitch on the short edges and single crocheted along the long edges.  This cleaned the blankets up nicely.

Difficulty:  Easy

Time Required:  About 13 movies per blanket

Overall Experience:  Excellent