Hello Crafters!
Welcome back to my Monster Baby Blanket tutorial 🙂 This is part two of the tutorial where we will cover the finishing and bordering of the baby blanket. If you missed part one visit that tutorial first to create the image and choose your colours and then head back over here to finish things off 🙂
The size of your crocheted image might be big enough for a baby blanket if you made your own charted image but this monster image is a little bit too small to be used as a baby blanket. For this reason I did simple rounds of single crochet around the image (working 1sc, ch1, 1sc in each corner) I did 24 rows.
Now you can do whatever size blanket you would like so you can simply single crochet around until you reach your desired size. The border we will be adding doesn’t really make the blanket any bigger so crochet around until you are at the size that you want your completed blanket to be.
Monster Baby Blanket Border
For the border I used the same coloured yarn that I used for the body of the monster to tie the whole design together. Every time I put a border on a crochet project I start with a row of single crochet to keep things neat and make the border easier to crochet.
So to start your border work one row of single crochet all the way around your blanket!
The crab stitch edging that I used for this project is one of my favourite edges for two reasons:
One: it is very simple and very quick, perfect for giving any project a quick professional looking border
Two: you only need to know one crochet stitch to make this border work and it is single crochet! Yay!
To work crab stitch you simply single crochet around but you work left to right instead of the usually crochet method of working right to left. You are left with a tidy edge that has sort of a rope texture.
If you’re having trouble with crab stitch head over here to my edgings tutorial where I will cover it 🙂
Tie off your yarn and weave it through the edge of the border to hide the ends.
Washing and Blocking
I am a little bit cheap with my yarn (or frugal 🙂 ) and I used a value yarn that isn’t exactly the softest. Everyone wants their crochet projects to be soft and cushy but it is especially important in this case because this blanket is for a delicate baby! Luckily all you need to do is send the completed blanket through a wash and dry cycle in your regular washer and dryer and it makes it MUCH softer. After completing this project it was so stiff that it could have been an outdoor doormat but after washing and drying it draped perfectly 🙂
The final step of this blanket (and any crochet or knit blanket!) is to block so you have a nicely shaped piece. I found it especially important with this project because carrying the multiple yarns through the project left the blanket with wavy lumps throughout. Also the crab stitch edging wanted to curl up so blocking it out will definitely prevent that as well.
I know it seems odd to soak your blanket after you just took it out of the dryer but trust me I’m not crazy! After washing and drying I simply ran the blanket under lukewarm water and gently wrung it out so it was damp. Then pin the blanket to a foam mat in the desired shape. Let it dry completely before removing the pins.
Sadly I had to fold my blanket in four because my foam mats went missing and I only have one left!
And that’s it, now you can make crochet blankets with any image that you can think of. Be creative and share your ideas with me in the comments below. I would love to see what my fellow crafters are up to!
Happy crafting!
