Apr
okay so the stripe blanket thing
I made one of these in spring 2022 when I was basically living on my couch watching true crime documentaries and needed something to do with my hands. The stripe blanket is honestly one of those projects that sounds more complicated than it is but also it’s gonna take you forever so just be ready for that.
The basic idea is you’re just doing rows back and forth in different colors. That’s it. You pick like 3-5 colors and alternate them however you want. I used single crochet for mine because I find it the most mindless and when you’re watching Forensic Files you don’t want to think too hard about what your hands are doing.
what you actually need
So yarn obviously. I used Red Heart Super Saver for my first one because it was cheap and I wasn’t sure if I’d actually finish it. Got the grey, that off-white color they call Aran, and this dusty blue situation. Each skein is like 7 ounces and I think I used maybe 6 skeins total? The blanket ended up being big enough to actually cover a person on the couch which was the goal.
For the hook I used a 5.5mm which is what the yarn label suggested. You could go bigger if you want it looser and faster but then it might look kinda holey.
The annoying thing about this project and I’m just gonna say it right now is weaving in all those ends. Every time you change colors you get two new ends to deal with and if you’re doing thin stripes you’re gonna have SO many. I got lazy halfway through and just started crocheting over the ends as I went which sort of works but sometimes they poke through later and you gotta tuck them back in.
how I actually did the stripes
Started with a chain that was like 150 stitches maybe? I didn’t count super carefully I just made it as wide as I wanted the blanket. The thing is your starting chain is gonna be the width of your blanket so you gotta commit. Mine was probably 4 feet across or something.
Then just single crochet across the whole row. Chain one, turn, single crochet back. Keep going until you want to change colors. For my first blanket I did like 8 rows of each color which gave me thick stripes. Later I made another one with thinner stripes and honestly it looked cooler but took so much longer because of all the color changes.
When you change colors you basically just… stop with the old color and start with the new one. I would finish the last stitch of the row with the old color, then when I chained one to turn, I’d drop that color and pick up the new one. Some people do this thing where they complete the very last stitch WITH the new color already but I could never get that to look right so I just switched at the chain.
the colors situation
Picking colors is weirdly hard? I thought it would be easy but then you get to the store and there’s like 400 options. My advice is grab a bunch of skeins that you think might work and hold them next to each other in different combinations. Take a picture on your phone because the lighting in craft stores is terrible and you want to see what they actually look like.
For that spring 2022 blanket I did grey-white-grey-blue-grey-white and just repeated that pattern. Having one color that shows up more often (the grey in my case) kind of ties the whole thing together. Otherwise it can look too… I don’t know, chaotic?
I also made one in summer 2024 with Caron Simply Soft because my friend said it was less scratchy and she was right actually. Used the colors Plum Wine, Orchid, and Lavender for this very purple situation. That yarn is lighter weight though so you need more of it and it takes longer. But it feels nicer for sure.
the actual process day to day
This is not a fast project. Like you’re gonna be working on this for weeks unless you have way more free time than me. I would usually do like 5-10 rows a night while watching TV. My cat kept trying to sleep on whatever part I’d already finished which was annoying but also kind of cute I guess.
The rhythm of it is actually really nice once you get going. Single crochet is just insert hook, yarn over, pull through, yarn over, pull through both loops. Over and over and over. Your hands just kind of learn it and you don’t have to think.
One thing I learned is you gotta pay attention to your tension especially when you’re switching colors. I would sometimes pull the new color tighter without meaning to and then that stripe would be slightly narrower. It’s not super noticeable in the final blanket but it bothered me when I noticed it.
troubleshooting the annoying parts
So the edges. The edges are gonna want to curl or get wavy if you’re not careful. This usually means you’re either adding stitches accidentally or losing them. I count my stitches like every 5 rows or so just to make sure I still have the same number I started with. If you’re adding stitches your blanket will get wider and start ruffling. If you’re losing them it’ll pull in at the sides.
The most common place to mess up is the very first and very last stitch of each row. At the beginning make sure you’re actually crocheting into that first real stitch and not into the turning chain from the previous row. At the end make sure you’re getting that last stitch and not stopping one short.
If you do mess up and notice it like 3 rows later you have two options. One is rip it all out back to the mistake and fix it. Two is just… leave it and see if anyone notices. I’ve definitely done both depending on how bad the mistake was and how much I couldn’t deal with redoing rows.
yarn amounts and planning
Okay so figuring out how much yarn you need is kind of a guessing game unless you want to do math which I don’t. What I did was buy 2 skeins of each color to start and then when I was maybe halfway through the blanket I could tell which colors I was running low on and bought more of those.
For a lap blanket size (like 4 feet by 5 feet maybe?) you’re probably looking at 6-8 skeins total of worsted weight yarn. If you want a full bed size blanket you’re gonna need way more and also you’re gonna be working on it until next year probably.
One thing about Red Heart Super Saver is it’s acrylic so you can throw it in the washing machine which is honestly the main reason I use it for blankets. Caron Simply Soft is also acrylic. If you use wool or cotton you gotta be more careful with washing and also it costs way more.
the border situation
I didn’t do a border on my first stripe blanket and it looked fine but kind of… unfinished? For the purple one I did a simple single crochet border all the way around in the darkest purple color. Just one row of single crochet and it made it look way more intentional and also helped the edges lay flat.
To do the border you basically single crochet along the top edge, then when you get to the corner you do 3 single crochets in the same stitch to turn the corner. Then down the side, which is kind of weird because you’re crocheting into the ends of rows instead of into stitches. I just eyeballed it and tried to keep the spacing even. Three stitches in the corner again, across the bottom, corner, up the other side, corner, and then slip stitch to where you started.
The side edges are the tricky part because you’re trying to figure out how many stitches to put along each row end. Too many and it’ll ruffle, too few and it’ll pull in. I just sort of… did what felt right and adjusted if it started looking weird.
variations you could try
Instead of single crochet you could do half double crochet which works up faster but uses more yarn. Or double crochet which is even faster but then you get bigger holes between stitches so it’s less of a solid blanket and more of a drapey thing.
You could do random width stripes instead of planned ones which actually looks really cool and modern. Just change colors whenever you feel like it. Some stripes might be 2 rows, some might be 15 rows, whatever.
Temperature blankets are basically stripe blankets where each row is a different color based on the temperature that day. People usually do these over a whole year so it’s like a record of the weather. I thought about doing one but honestly I knew I wouldn’t stick with it for a whole year so I didn’t bother.
You could also do stripes in both directions which sounds complicated but it’s not really. You’d just… actually wait that would be complicated nevermind. Unless you did like a granny square situation but then it’s not really a stripe blanket anymore.
what to do with it when it’s done
I mean it’s a blanket so you use it like a blanket. The spring 2022 one lives on my couch and I use it constantly. It’s been washed probably 20 times and it’s holding up fine. The colors have faded a tiny bit but not bad.
These also make decent gifts if you know someone who would actually appreciate the amount of time that went into it. I made one for my mom with her favorite colors (lots of blues and greens) and she uses it all the time. Took me like 2 months working on it here and there.
Some people get all precious about their handmade stuff but honestly I think blankets should be used. What’s the point of making it if it’s just gonna sit in a closet because you’re afraid of messing it up.
cost breakdown roughly
Red Heart Super Saver is usually like 4 or 5 dollars per skein depending on where you buy it. So if you need 7 skeins that’s like 35 bucks for yarn. Hook you probably already have or can get for a few dollars. So under 40 dollars total for a blanket which is honestly pretty good.
Caron Simply Soft is more expensive, maybe 6 or 7 dollars per skein. So same blanket would be closer to 50 dollars.
Compare that to buying a blanket at like Target or wherever and you’re probably spending about the same but yours is custom colors and also you made it yourself which feels good even though the process was sometimes boring.
common mistakes I made that you can avoid
Not weaving in ends as I went. Seriously just do it every time you change colors or at least every few color changes. Having to sit down and weave in like 60 ends at the end of the project is the worst.
Making the starting chain too tight. It should be loose enough to easily fit your hook through. If it’s too tight that whole edge will be bunched up and weird.
Not checking my stitch count regularly. Then I’d realize 20 rows later that I’d been slowly adding stitches and one edge was all wavy.
Switching yarn brands in the middle of a project. The thickness was slightly different even though they were both worsted weight and you could kind of tell in the finished blanket.
Thinking I could finish it in like a week. This is not a fast project unless you have nothing else to do with your life.
is it actually worth it
I mean depends what you want out of it. If you need a blanket fast just buy one. If you want a project to keep your hands busy while you watch TV and at the end you have a blanket, then yeah it’s worth it. The stripe pattern is easy enough that you don’t have to think about it but interesting enough that it’s not completely boring.
It’s also a good beginner project if you’re new to crochet because it’s just the same stitch over and over. You’ll get really good at single crochet by the end. And if you mess up it’s not the end of the world because stripes kind of hide imperfections.
The sense of accomplishment when you finish is pretty good too. Like you made this whole blanket with your own hands and some string. That’s kind of cool even if it took forever and your fingers hurt by the end of every session.
