Thursday, June 13, 2013

"Broom" Baby Blanket Tutorial

A few years ago, I picked up a crochet blanket pattern that I have never seen anywhere else. It is my go-to pattern for baby blankets. I've probably made over a dozen in the past 7 years! I call this the "broom" pattern since the outcome reminds me of the head of a broom. Here is the finished product:


Let's go through the steps to crocheting this beautiful blanket!
Step 1. Assemble the yarn, crochet hook, and large knitting needle. I use a 6 mm crochet hook and one size 50 knitting needle. One or two large skeins of yarn should do the trick. It depends on how big you want the blanket. Remember to get extra soft yarn!

Step 2. Chain 175 rows. Be careful not to crochet the chains too tight or too loose. When you do the chain the first time, you'll probably think it is too long. Trust me, it isn't! I've had to rip out the loops before when I realized I didn't chain enough rows.

Step 3. Insert your crochet hook into each stitch on the chain and grab the the thread of yarn, looping it through the stitch. Pull through the stitch and then drag the new loop onto the knitting needle. Repeat until each stitch on the chain has a loop through it that is attached to the knitting needle.




Step 5. Now that all loops are on the knitting needle, you are ready to start the broom pattern. Pull off 5 loops from the top of the knitting needle. Insert your hook into the five loops.


Grab the string of yarn with the hook and do a single crochet around the five loops.


Do a total of 5 single crochet stitches in the 5 loops.

As you can see in the photo above, you are creating a new chain on top of the "brooms." Once you have taken all the loops off and done 5 single crochets in each group of 5 loops, then you have a brand new chain. Go back to step 3 and put the loops on the knitting needle. Repeat. And that is it!
You can go on for as long as you like. I like to stop at about 25 rows of the pattern. This makes the blanket pretty square. Sticking to multiples of 5 works well with this pattern since you are working with 5 loops at a time. I like to add some fringe on at the end as well, and for that I just cut up the remaining yarn to a length I like and knot them around the edges. Pretty simple!
I hope this isn't too complicated and that you found the tutorial easy to follow!


7 comments:

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    1. Thanks! If you try it, let me know if my instructions make sense! I could also teach you when I see you sometime. I have left-handed crochet habits because you taught me how :)

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  2. About how long did this take you to make?

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    1. For some reason these comments went into moderation - weird!

      I would say this takes about 8-10 hours, total. If I work on it an hour or two a day for a week, it is done. The most tedious part is figuring out the length. It took me a while to settle on the pattern of 175 chains. For a while I just guessed and found that I would guess wrong and the blanket wouldn't be wide enough! I finally wrote down the pattern and now can go on autopilot. Once you get the hang of the pattern, I can easily watch TV for an hour and work on this. Makes TV-watching okay since I am being productive :)

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  3. This pattern is beautiful....and kind of perfect for an 'unable to or chooses not to read patterns' girl like me. I should be able to do this and it's much more intricate looking that other basic stitches! I'll have to carve out some time to try it! And I have a perfect person to make one for. Thanks for posting!!

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    1. I'm happy you like it! I just started a new one last night. These make great gifts as well.

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