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I have been wanting to make a blanket with Red Heart Super Saver Retro Stripes for a long time, but it has been impossible to find anywhere. When I saw that JOANN had some in stock a month or so ago I ordered some right away. I was so excited to turn it into a cute rainbow baby blanket. Plus I was hoping to have enough left over to make a hat for my rainbow and unicorn loving 9 year old, because the colors totally remind me of her.
I had a million other projects I needed to finish, or work on, or even projects that were done and I just needed to get patterns written up for, but when my yarn came in the mail I couldn't let it sit for long before I started a project with it.
I knew I wanted to make a baby blanket, but I wasn't sure exactly which stitches or pattern I wanted to use. I was tossing around a few different ideas in my head when I remembered a stitch I used in a dishcloth a while ago. I knew right away that that was the stitch I wanted to use in this blanket.
The bloque stitch is an interlocking stitch, where some of the stitches are worked into stitches 2 rows below, not just the previous row like you normally would. This gives the stitches a kind of staggered look and I thought it worked really well with the self-striping yarn because it blended the colors in a really cool way. The stitch still has a neat texture when worked in a solid color yarn, but I really love the effect with the striped yarn.
It creates a pretty dense fabric. There aren't any holes or gaps in the finished blanket, so it will be nice and warm. I finished the blanket off with a simple single crochet border in white to add a little contrast.
I love it so much that I really want to go buy some more self striping yarn in a different color way so I can see how it looks in other colors. The stitch is a two row repeat so it is a great, sort of mindless, project to work on while you are watching a movie or something.
How to Crochet the Bloque Stitch Blanket
Finished Size: approximately 32 inches square (easily adjusted to any size you want, but your yarn requirements will change if you make a larger blanket)
You will need:
- 4 skeins Red Heart Super Saver Stripes in Retro Stripe (or desired colorway)
- 1 skein Red Heart Super Saver in White
- J crochet hook
- yarn needle
- scissors
Instructions:
The bloque stitch requires a starting chain of 4+1, to make a larger blanket adjust the starting chain by a multiple of 4.
Blanket
Begin with main color (Retro Stripes)
ch 101
Row 2: ch 4 (counts as hdc and ch 2), turn, skip 2 stitches [dc in the 2 skipped ch from the foundation ch (working over the skipped ch), ch 2, skip next 2 stitches] repeat until 1 ch remaining, hdc in last stitch (turning ch)
Row 3: ch 2 (counts as first hdc), turn, [work a dc into the top of each of the next 2 stitches from round 1 (working over the ch from round 2), ch 2, skip next 2 stitches] repeat until 1 ch remaining, hdc in last ch
Repeat rows 2 and 3 always working into the row 2 below, over the ch of the previous row, until you have the size you want (I wanted my blanket to be pretty close to square so I ended up with 85 rows of the stitch pattern), then continue on to the final row
Final Row: depending on which row you are on this row will look a little different, you will work the row just like the others, except where you would normally work a ch work a hdc into the stitch instead, work dc into the row 2 below just like normal, follow the row specific instructions below:
Final Row if you are on a Row 2 repeat: ch 2 (counts as hdc), turn, hdc in next two stitches, [dc in the 2 skipped stitches from previous round, hdc in next 2 stitches] repeat until 1 st remaining, hdc in last st
Final Row if you are on a Row 3 repeat: ch 2 (counts as first hdc), turn, [work a dc into the top of each of the next 2 stitches from previous round (working over the ch from round 2), hdc in next 2 stitches] repeat until 1 st remaining, hdc in last st
Finish off
Border
change to white yarn for the border
Round 1: sc in each stitch across the top, 3 sc in corner, sc evenly down the side of blanket, 3 sc in corner, sc in each stitch across the bottom, 3 sc in corner, sc evenly up last side, 2 sc in same corner as first stitch, sl st to first sc to join
Round 2: ch 1, sc in blo of each stitch around, working 3 stitches in each corner, sl st to first sc to join
Round 3: ch 1, sc in blo of each stitch around, working 3 stitches in each corner, sl st to first sc to join
Finish off, weave in ends
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