Recommend me a crochet blanket

[kittykarate]

I'm planning ahead really - during winter I like making a blanket in front of the telly. What I want is

• Not too heavy or too light a yarn (so something between Chunky and DK)
• Not too many colour changes (I abandoned a blanket that was granny hexagons with colour change on each round). Ok with colour changes every few rows of a blanket.
• Really simple, mindless, repeating pattern that I can spot where I've gone wrong because I was watching telly too much.
• Cost a maximum of £30

I've done a few blankets, big granny square, horizontal granny stripes, lots of little grannies joined. I've done some crochet along ones that have a different stitch every few rows - I got a bit funned out by them.

Maybe something like this https://www.blacksheepwools.com/products/crochet-wave-blanket-and-bolster-cusin-sirdar-jewelspun-aran

The beauty of a blanket is that it can be anything you want. It can be a good training aid for developing your own patterns. My favourite blanket to do is to pick a chunky yarn in a solid colour and then do say 20 rows of a particular stitch, followed by 20 rows of another stitch and keep going until you get a length you want, add a simple border and finish of with a crab stitch edging. Or pick two or three favourite stitches and repeat them
as desired.
I do cheat and have a dictionary of crochet stitches (amazon!) which helps in choosing stitches that sit together for stitch counts. But no patterns to have to follow, any errors are a design edit and easy to watch tv/listen to radio whilst doing them.

I have this book: Beautiful Blankets, Afghans and Throws: 40 blocks & stitch patterns to crochet amzn.eu/d/f5DSLf0

And have made some lovely throws from it - my most recent one was great for being a repeating stitch and only had to change colour at the end of a row!

I have just bought this book: Mix and Match Modern Crochet Blankets: 100 patterned and textured strips for 1000s of unique throws amzn.eu/d/5eWnJmU

And I'm looking forward to using it - I like the idea of doing it in strips so I can break it up a bit and try different colours and stitches!

Any of the Attic 24 blankets would fit the bill, but the yarn packs are just over your budget (most are £34). They're beautiful though!

www.woolwarehouse.co.uk/attic24

Janie crow has some lovely designs and links to yarn packs on her website.

Felted button do some lovely blankets

Was going to say the same, I did one of these and because it is acrylic it is light and washable.

Attic24. They are gorgeous

Ooh I quite like the look of the Woodland and Coast blankets. Ones for the wishlist. £34 is wildly out of price range, I just didn't want something that was made of pure angel armpit hair and worked out at £200!

I also recommend the attic 24 blankets. Easy to follow patterns and you can always use different colours if you have yarn at home already.

Daisy farm crafts is also good for blanket patterns, you can access them online for free.

Yep, Attic 24 has some amazing blankets.
TBH you don't have a huge budget there, but some of the Stylecraft Acrylics that Attic 24 recommends come in fairly cheaply.

My default is the attic24 trellis stripe (sweet pea) blanket, it comes up very snuggly, even more so if you use a 4.5mm hook instead of a 4. I have done it in lots of colour schemes and you can make the stripes thick to avoid too many loose ends.

I can't recommend it fully (because I haven't tried it yet) but I have just bought this pattern https://www.woolwarehouse.co.uk/crocheted-by-becca-becky-barnes-hazy-daisy-blanket-in-yarnsmiths-pebble-haze-dk-uk-terms-downloadable-pdf

The yarn pack for it is £28 but I have bought different colours of basic yarnsmiths acrylic yarn so it works out cheaper.

Obviously there are colour changes, but it isn't too complex. I will probably have a few nights making the centres and then the petals first.

Attic 24 is the best place

You will have left overs so could you justify the cost

So pleased with her patterns and blankets

I've done the Jewelspun one. I found it pretty easy, certainly something you can do while watching TV, and it comes out well: the yarn looks lovely and it's a nice soft texture. The downside is that I find Jewelspun winds itself into coils all the time, but that may something to do with the way I crochet.

Cygnet Boho is a variegated acrylic yarn that looks and feels like wool. Available in several colour ways, this one is wicked. Amazon

I designed this shawl

Impressed! That's an unusual combination, and it really works.

Another Attic24 fan!

I have done two of her ripple pattern designs. Yes there are lots of colours but they only change every two rows and it is pretty simple and repetitive.

Love the results.

Classic aran afghan

I've made a few of these - a couple in aran weight, a smaller version in DK, and currently in a chunky acrylic. Dead easy to make, UK treble (US double) throughout except for the edges (reverse UK double (crab)).
The trebles are in front loop only, front and back post on two rows, and one row of 5-treble popcorn bobbles.
I tried one in stripes but it didn't really work for me (symmetry was off!!) so it's best to do in a single colour, in my opinion.

If you want something even easier, try a Corner to corner moss stitch blanket - even easier if you do it in a variegated yarn so you don't have to keep changing over. There are loads of patterns and videos, but here's one

Have you considered checking out Helen Shrimpton’s blankets?
https://crystalsandcrochet.com/

I've had a lot of fun with them and you can use up odds and ends, so doesn’t have to be expensive.

I make this one quite a lot as you can choose whatever colours you like - it’s really easy and looks great. https://www.stylecraft-yarns.co.uk/Content/Downloads/Free%20Patterns/F074_CrochetStripeblanketlifedk.pdf

Another attic24 fan.... Done ripples and Coast which i loved .just tried a c2c as made a chessboard blanket but it makes quite a heavy dense style..
For a quicker less ends i found a rectangle granny square pattern online and used a variagated wool... Just sales/discount hunted the variable wool... Usual haunts wool warehouse/black sheep local shop..
Short of looking for sales online.. charity shops can be a good source or local Facebook..
Am wondering to try one of the fancy tiles ones but think maybe to much concentration!
Hobbii has some good freebie patterns too
Need to finish my summer project(s) 1st !

https://hobbii.com/products/hp-1002252-deluxe-baby-blanket?epik=dj0yJnU9Z0dfTF9HV0JxOEVELXJMUFhFN3ZYcEppLXoxWGJLWXImcD0wJm49T0RVQzZqQkpzWHM0aVluYThFVkpOdyZ0PUFBQUFBR2lHUlNr

I have done this in DK merino - such a satisfying but mindless pattern! The blanket is so sweet at the end. It is square though.

I've done one. I'm glad I did it, because in my biased opinion it''s a thing of beauty and I've told the kids they'd better treat it as an heirloom or I'll come back to haunt them. But it definitely doesn't meet OP's criteria of having a simple mindless repeating pattern that she can do whilst watching TV. They need your full concentration - in fact my tip is to use the videos she helpfully provides, otherwise you'll get hopelessly stuck (or at least I would).

Have you ever seen those temperature blankets? Each tiny section shows the temperature of a place over a particular period of time. I'm not explaining this very well so this is what Google says:

A temperature blanket is a year-long crochet project where each row represents a day's temperature, using a color-coded yarn system. Essentially, you assign a specific color to a temperature range and crochet a row in that color each day based on the daily high temperature