Before starting a large project such as a blanket there are a few things worth knowing first.
You need the basic stitches: single crochet, double crochet, half double crochet, and how to work a foundation chain. With those, almost any blanket pattern is within reach.
Choose the construction
Three approaches, suiting different working styles.
One piece. Worked edge to edge, or in rounds from the centre. No assembly, which is a real advantage. The drawback is that rows get very long – by the end each takes an evening – and the work becomes heavy and awkward to carry.
Strips. Long panels joined at the end. Portable, and each strip finishes satisfyingly.
Motifs. Squares or hexagons made individually and joined. The most portable, and the easiest to pick up in short sessions. The cost is assembly, which is where most motif blankets stall – use join-as-you-go and the problem largely disappears.
If you are prone to losing momentum, choose motifs or strips.
Work out the size first
Decide the finished dimensions, then derive the stitch count from a gauge swatch. This is far easier than discovering at row 200 that the blanket is too narrow.
Rough guides: a baby blanket around 30 by 35 inches, a lap blanket 40 by 50, a throw larger again.
Buying yarn
Buy all of it at the start, in matching dye lots. Yarn is dyed in batches, and two balls of the same colour from different lots will show as a visible band across the finished blanket.
Estimate quantity by making one square, or a strip’s worth of rows, and noting how much it used. That is far more reliable than a general rule, because tension varies enormously.
Acrylic is the economical and practical choice for a blanket: it is inexpensive, it takes a machine wash, and it holds colour well. A blanket that cannot be washed will end up in a cupboard.
Keeping it even
On a large piece small errors compound badly.
Count your stitches at the end of every row for the first ten. A blanket that gains one stitch per row finishes as a trapezoid, and there is no fixing it at the end.
If you are making motifs, compare the first against the last before joining. Tension drifts over a long project.
Weave ends as you go
A striped or motif blanket generates a great many. Leaving them all to the end is how blankets get abandoned within sight of finishing.
Choose a stitch you enjoy
You will be doing it many thousands of times. A stitch that is mildly irritating on a swatch becomes intolerable across a blanket.
