Crocheting a blanket - tips for a beginner and best pattern/stitch to use?

[flubba]

Hello lovely crafters. I'm new to crocheting and have (finally!) mastered a granny square which looks lovely (having made a few dodgy ones before now!). I've also made a small bag and some booties, so can do a few different stitches, and am planning on starting a smallish blanket (in three or four colours - or shades of blue to be exact).

Would you advise me to go for a granny-square based one, or a ripple one or (and my preference I think) a a granny stripe one?

And do you know which would use the least amount of wool? I started out with acrylic wool (cheapy, cheapy!) but have used a couple of balls of things like debbie bliss cashmerino DK / rowan something or another, having made squares for the Woolly Hugs blankets, so now realise how lovely this kind of wool is, and would love to do a blanket with it but it's soooo £££, and I don't have £££

Thank you.

I would start with a granny square blanket, you'll be surprised how quickly it will grow.

The stripey one is good too. Also once you finish the blanket you can edge it and thats the fun bit (well I think so) I like to make up edges as I go round.

I like the idea of one growing quickly :) Do you think it'll look crappy if some are my newly-discovered proper granny squares, and some are my slightly 'unique' style of granny squares?

Still drawn to the straight stripes though too...

Granny stripes can be a bit wool hungry but look lovely (I'm currently doing one for a charity auction in rainbow colours - if you can hang on, I'll let you know how far i get at 2' wide and 7 balls of baby bamboo!)

Or, make lots of plain grannies in different colours that can be sewn or crocheted together. If you pick two contrasting colours, you could make your stripes from rows if grannies in the same colour iyswim. Has the advantage that you only need to buy one colour at a time so spreading the cost.

Fatter wool makes bigger squares, so aran or even chunky on the bigger hook will make a bigger blanket faster. The downside is that woo, is sold by weight so you get fewer yards for your money.

Check the discount codes, bargain bins, ebay. There's loads of ways to reduce the price when you buy in bulk :)

Thanks Pidj, that's what I feared about granny stripes being wool-hungry. I might wait until I'm sure of myself and have 1000s of ££s flowing in from my other crafts before I splurge on enough nice wool for a granny-stripe blanket.

I reckon Granny Squares are the way to go on my first project - and if I leave the stitching together (have NO idea how I do that, but will get on to that much later), then I'll have a better idea of whether the colours I have (and probably the different sizes I'll make! ) look nice together or not.

I'm doing the attic 24 granny stripe and the wool she used the style craft special is really nice for an acrylic and it has made a surprisingly soft blanket.
I got it for around £30 including postage for 17 balls so affordable too.
Like you I can't afford the nice stuff!!!!

Ooh, that's def. affordable! Where did you get it from?

How big do you plan to make it?

Baby weight dk is often softer than regular cheapie acrylic - Sirdar is nice and works well from a 3.75mm hook (not too dramatic a reduction from the usual 4mm)

I'm using the stylecraft special too for my blanket. I used it for a ripple cushion so I know it is hard wearing,but still soft. It washes well too and there are lots of lovely colours :)
I just have to finish all the rest of my projects first

Not sure yet Pidj, probably min. about 30" x 40" or so.

Not much bigger than my 24"x however much wool I've got stripes then! I'll be done in a week or two (have incoming MN squares so need to get a wriggle on!) and have 7 balls of Sirdar Baby Bamboo to use, i can keep you updated if you like?

Yes please Pidj :)

www.deramores.com/sirdar-snuggly-baby-bamboo-dk

Dp's ordered me to rest today (20w pg and did 14 hours working at a music festival yesterday) so I'll do some more later. Thanks for the excuse :o

Total newbie here - how much difference does it make to use a 4mm as opposed to a 3.75mm hook?

Slightly smaller holes between stitches and slightly easier to keep the wool on the hook!

To the naked eye, the difference would be invisible, and if your tension is tightish it's negligible tbh

Congratulations!! :) Yes, you must take it easy and just crochet or watch telly. Doc's orders :)

Roughly how many 50g balls would you use for a 24" blanket?

Def cost it out first! :)
I started a granny square blanket for dd last summer. I did not work out even vaguely how much wool I'd need so I've had to buy wool when I had a bit of money.
If you look at attic24's website she has 'ta-dah's for her finished projects. She often adds the make of wool, colours and most importantly the amount of wool used. You could use that for an idea of cost.

Dd's blanket is being hooked together at the mo - surprising easy. But it is not a gigantic blanket as I got bored of making squares and buying more expensive wool isn't a priority ATM unfortunately. :)

I have 7 - ROYGBIV - that a friend bought me to make this blanket (joint donation) and one row per colour gives 4" or so. Ish. Roughly. I think. I'll measure it in a minute, I'm not actually up yet...

Oooh very, very of being in bed still :) ~ I feel like I've dine ten rounds with Tyson! :o

Thanks all for replies, very helpful

One row in each colour (7) is 3" and there's a pic on my profile.

PidjChick will be pfb so I'm enjoying it while i can

www.countrycrafts.org.uk/attic24pack.html
This is what i got postage is not cheap though

Clever idea of that shop that is! Thanks for the link :)

Hi Pidg (or anyone else in the know) - my local yarn shop doesn't stock stylecraft Dh but does what feel like a nice acrylic yarn - Hayfield Bonus DK Extra Value. Is there any reason why I couldn't use this yarn instead of the stylecraft to give the granny blanket a go?

Absolutely none. Just make sure you use the right size hook for your yarn, and if you're doing anything size-dependant (eg clothes) know how many sts and rows = 1" :)

Jubbly, thanks Pidj. I'm a million miles away from clothes especially as I've only just worked how to do a proper granny square Somehow I failed to work out that my trebles should cluster in one big hole to make a shell shape, and was stitching each treble into each stitch from previous round! :o

I'll be dragging my kiddies to my local yarn shop tomorrow then :)

How's your rainbow blanket coming along?