Afghan crochet goes by a number of names: Tricot crochet, Tunisian crochet, railroad knitting, shepherd’s knitting and hook knitting. Once you start looking there are a great many free designs – apple afghans, simple afghans, ripple baby afghans – though none of them helps much without the basics in place.
So start with the basics.
What to learn first
For an ordinary crocheted afghan, you need the chain, the single crochet and the double crochet. That is enough for the large majority of blanket patterns.
For Tunisian or Afghan crochet specifically, you also need a long hook with a stopper and an understanding of the two-pass row: forward picking up loops, back working them off.
The ripple afghan
The classic beginner blanket, and it earns its reputation.
A ripple is made by alternating increases and decreases at regular intervals along a row. Where you increase the fabric pushes up into a peak; where you decrease it pulls down into a valley. Repeat the same sequence every row and the waves stack up.
What makes it good for a beginner is that mistakes are visible immediately. If your peak drifts sideways, you have miscounted – and you will see it within a row rather than twenty rows later.
It is also very forgiving of colour. Stripes on a ripple look deliberate almost regardless of what colours you choose.
A dual or double ripple
A variation using two ripple sequences, or two colours worked in alternating bands, to give a more complex surface. It is not harder, only longer to establish – once the first few rows are set, the pattern maintains itself.
Practical advice for any afghan
Count at the end of every row, especially in the first ten. A blanket that gains a stitch per row finishes as a trapezoid.
Buy all the yarn at once, in matching dye lots. A colour shift halfway across a blanket cannot be worked around.
Choose machine washable yarn. A blanket is used, and one that cannot be washed goes in a cupboard.
Weave in ends as you go. A striped afghan generates a great many.
Sizing
Decide the finished size before starting and work out your stitch count from a gauge swatch. A baby afghan is roughly 30 by 35 inches; a lap blanket around 40 by 50; a throw larger again.
It is much easier to get this right at the start than to discover at row 200 that the blanket is too narrow.
