[music] in this video in the crochet for knittersseries we're going to learn to make this blanket. it's called the wavy blanket, and it's designedby my friend stephanie gage. stephanie is a photographer, she's a knitter,a crocheter, she dyes yarn, she makes beautiful yarn on her website spinning colors. and she has several patterns available onravelry. and i will give you all the links where youcan find stephanie in the video description below as well as on my website. also if you'd like to get your free copy ofthis pattern to follow along, here's a link
to my website, take you there, and i'll linkfrom there where you can get your free pattern. um, this pattern is really very simple, butvery versatile. you can use any yarn and any hook, and reallymake this work for you, any way that you want. stephanie has given us a specific yarn weightand a specific hook size to make a baby blanket. and you can look on ravelry, a lot of peoplehave knit this already. and you can see what they've done with differentyarns and different colors. i get a lot of inspirations when i go to ravelryand i see the color combinations that people have put together for different things. it's always very cool to see.
but we'll give you instructions for makingthis any width. you can make this baby blanket size, throw,twin, all the way up to a king size blanket. the only limitation is the yarn you have tocrochet it with, really. and i want to show you a few of the examplesthat i have here. let's go ahead and take a look. this is an exreme. because instead of using worsted weight yarn,which is what the pattern calls for, i've gone down to a fingering weight yarn. a sock weight yarn, in a cotton silk blend.
so the color definition really pops, and amuch finer, a much finer fabric that is created from it. all of the information about everything thatyou see here, all of these yarns and the needle sizes that i used are all in the video descriptionfield below, as well as on my website. because i have a lot of different samplesto show you, a lot of different yarns. anyway, there is one two color option. here is a sample i worked up in baby colors. this is out of a machine washable yarn inthree different colors, all traditional baby colors.
and here's a worsted weight one that i did,using leftover yarn from other projects. i had wool yarn leftover from a million differentprojects, i just kept grabbing a different color and working with it. and i would actually love to do a whole blanketlike this! to use up leftovers, because it looks reallycool. and here is the last sample, which is closeto the finished blanket photo that you just saw. in the photo that we put in of my finishedblanket, that's knit with two strands of worsted held together.
i keep saying knit! you know i mean crochet,right? this is crocheted with one strand of bulkyyarn. and it gives a much bulkier effect, reallyquick way to work up a blanket using bulky yarn. now the pattern tells you how many to chainto start with for the baby blanket stephanie gives instructions for. but really, you can make this any width. this pattern, as long as you start wtih amultiple of 12 plus 3, you can make it in any width.
and if you need, if you want to see my mathfor knitters video on x + y, the way this pattern is worked, multiple of 12 plus 3,i'll give you a link here to that video. really you need to knit up a swatch, see howwide one pattern repeat is for you, to determine how many to chain for any given width. you can also save yourself a little bit oftime by looking at the projects on ravelry. maybe someone used the same weight of yarnthat you want to use, you can always just see in their notes if they tell you the startingchain number that they used. anyway, next up, we're going to get startedon the blanket. if you have your free copy of the pattern,you have the hook you want to use, you have
the yarn you want to use, and as many colorsas you want to use, you're ready to go. i'm going to show you how to work this andput all of these stitches together. in this blanket, there are four differentstitches used besides the starting chain. single crochet, half double crochet, doublecrochet, and triple crochet. and if you are somewhat familiar with thesestitches, this tutorial should be enough to remind you and get you going on your blanketright away. if any one of those stitches you're not familiarwtih, i'm going to give you a link to a very slow demonstration of each stitch as we getto that stitch in the pattern. then you can watch that, learn that stitch,maybe you've never worked a triple crochet
before, then you can come back and watch thisvideo to put all of those together. let's get started with the pattern. we're going to get started with the startingchain here. um, let me get a sample. in this pattern, i changed colors every tworows. and you repeat, well, the very first partyou just work a row one time and then you change color after one row. then, from then on, to get these diamond shapes,you work two of the exact same row, which is row 2 and 3.
then you switch to rows 3 and 4, 2 and 3,3 and 4. this will make sense in a minute, but i'mgoing to change color every two rows, which is what i want you to see here. so i'm going to start with this blue color,and start with a slip knot. and i'm going to chain, as we talked aboutbefore, a multiple of 12 plus 3. i'm going to do two pattern repeats in thissample, so i'm going to chain 24 plus 3, 27. i was very careful not to talk at all duringthat counting. because i'm notorious for losing count whilei'm teaching in video. so i have my starting chain, and the firstbit of instructions in row 1, which is a setup
row that you only work one time. i'm going to begin in the second stitch fromthe hook, one two, and i'm goign to work a single crochet. and this is going to give us the bottom border. so you can either work from teh top leg ofthe v, or you can work from teh spine of the crochet chain. what i call the hyphens on the back of thecrochet chain. it's entirely up to you. i like to work from the top leg of the v.
so i skip the first one, i'm going to worka single crochet into that first stitch. and i'm going to work a single crochet intothe next stitch. so, two single crochets. now, we want to get wider, so the crochetstitches are going to get taller. now we're going to work two half double crochets. you yarn over first, go into the next stitch,grab the yarn and pull up a loop, grab the yarn and pull through all three. i'm going to work a second one. yarn over, into the next sttich, pull up aloop, grab the yarn and pull through all three.
i forgot to do what i promised! here is a link to the slow version demonstrationof the single crochet. and here is a link to a slow version demonstrationof the half double crochet. and i'll be sure to give you a link to thechain stitch as well, if you need it. next is the double crochet. so we went single crochet, half double crochetis a bit taller, double crochet are even taller. yarn over, into the next stitch, grab theyarn and pull up a loop, you have three, grab the yarn and pull through two, grab the yarnand pull through two. and here's a link to a very slow demonstrationof the double crochet.
here it is again - we work all of these inpairs, so here's my second double crochet. grab the yarn and pull up a loop, grab theyarn and pull through two, grab the yarn and pull through two. okay, now we're ready to move on to triplecrochet. and this requires two yarn overs, or yarningover twice. so you do yarn over, yarn over again. so it looks like you have three loops on thehook right now. into the next stitch, grab the yarn and pullup a loop, grab the yarn and pull through two, grab the yarn and pull through two, grabthe yarn and pull through two.
and you know you're finished with a crochetstitch when there's just one loop left on the hook. and here's a link to a slow demonstrationof the triple crochet. again, yarn over twice. into the next stitch, grab the yarn and pullup a loop. grab the yarn and pull through two, grab theyarn and pull through two, grab the yarn and so that's the tallest part of this pattern. two single crochets, two half double crochets,two double crochets, and two triple crochets. now we're going to go back down.
back down shorter. and this is all very clear in the pattern,of course. i'm going to work two double crochets. two half double crochets. and then two single crochets. and now we're ready to go back up in length. so, half double crochets. a couple of rows in this pattern, and youcan do it in your sleep. double crochets.
and triple crochets. and a little extra patience is always requiredwhen you're working the first row. working into the foundation chain is the hardestrow. so we get it over with first. half double crochets. and two single crochets. and that's the end of the row. okay. that's my first row, beautiful foundationrow.
now i'm going to show you how to change color,and work row 2. i'm going to have to work from the wrong endof this yarn. i have broken the yarn from this blue color,because i knwo that after row 1 i'm ready to change color. i'll flip this over, i have my new yarn readyto go. this is how i like to change color. it's best to have a surface to work on, yourlap is usually fine. i grab the new color of yarn and pull it throughthat loop. and then tighten everything up.
and tie the old end to the new end. in a tight knot. usually i find i can just weave in the endsafter that and everything's fine, i can leave the knot there. sometimes the knot loosens up, you need toend up taking it out. but if nothing else, it's going to hold thatstable while i continue on with the rest of the blanket. so now i'm going to start wtih row 2, andwith color b, that i've just added, you want to chain 3.
and begin the next stitch in the 5th chainfrom the hook. so that means we skip the first one in theold color and move on to the next one. and the reason for that is that this firstchain 3 is going to count as our first triple crochet. because what we're doing here, this is therow i just finished. now we're going to work long - we worked shortstitches into long, now we're going to work long stitches into short. so my first stitch is a triple crochet, andthat chain up counts as the first one. so i'll skip that first stitch, and go intothe second one with a triple crochet.
so now we start to get shorter. and i work double crochet. half double crochet. and then single crochet. and you can always tell you're on track inthis blanket because the triple crochets are really easy to identify. they are just super long stitches that youcan see really easily. you can identify them from the double crochetsnext to them. so if you are working the shortest stitchin the new color into the longest stitch in
the old color, you are on track. and i'm working my two single crochets intothe two triple crochets from the last row. after i finish row 2, i turn the work. row 3 is exactly like row 2. and that gives us the diamond shape, by workingtwo of the same row, in the same color before we move on to the next row, in a differentcolor. next up we're going to talk about workingrows 4 and 5, which are not very different from rows 2 and 3. and weaving in the ends.
one nice thing about this blanket is thatthere aren't very many things to learn to be able to knit, or crochet, the whole thing. we've covered everything up to rows 4 and5, which i'm going to demonstrate right now. and then i'm going to show you my trick forweaving in ends. so let's get right in to rows 4 and 5. look at this yarn matches my nails, that wasnot intentional. i've already worked row 4 here, i want toshow you how putting the two of them together makes this diamond shape. so i changed color on the last row.
this was the setup row. row 1, row 2. whoops, setup row, row 3, row 4, now i'm goingto work 5. so i put my hook back into the work. and i'll tell you another trick. when you need to put your crochet down fora little while. you can either pull the loop really big tokeep it from going anywhere. or you can do something that i do, which isi take a clippie marker. and put it in there so that you don't loseany stitches.
and just take the hook out of the work. very different from knitting! you have a lot of stitches to manage in knitting,and not jsut one loop. okay, so row 5, which is exactly the sameas row 4, starts with a chain 1. and unlike the triple crochet chain up, thisdoes not count as a single crochet. we're actually goign to work two single crochetsinto the first two stitches. so you skip the chain up that you just did,and work two single crochets. going under both legs of the v. and then moving up to two double, or halfdouble crochets.
two double crochets. two triple crochets, and again here we are. triple crochets are really easy to recognizebecause they're super long. and i know that i'm on track wtih the patternbecause i'm going to be working two triple crochets into the two triple crochets becausewe're in the same color. and then from here i start going back downthen back up again, just following the pattern. and now i want to show you my trick for weavingin ends. especially if you're using a non wool yarn,a machine washable yarn. because wool yarn, when you weave in an endwith wool yarn, it will end up felting a little
bit, and the end is not likely to come unraveled. but if you're using a washable yarn, likea synthetic yarn or a cotton yarn, that doesn't happen. it's not going to felt to itself so you'remore likely to have pokey ends coming out with machine washing. this is a trick that i like to do to makesure that the end is secure, so it can be machine washed and dried, just following thedirections on your yarn label. so i have my tapestry needle and the end iwant to weave in. and of course you want to weave in the endinto the same color.
i wouldn't want to weave this pink end intothe blue. and i'm not doing anything fancy here. i'm just getting the end away from the edgeat this point. and if i pull it through and i don't likethe way it looks, actually i'm not happy with that little bit right there. i'm going to take that part out, and weaveit through a little bit more. that's good. okay, that won't show. then i'm going to untwist the plies.
and separate the plies half and half. and this is a four ply yarn. this happens to be wool, i don't really haveto do this technique with the wool. but the demonstration is the same, eitherway. i take half of those plies and thread themback on the needle. and then take that just one loop away. just so that the two halves of the plies,the two halves of the yarn aren't coming out of the same spot. so you can tie a knot in this.
careful on the first half, not too crazy tight. then do the second half, and pull like crazy. really tight. just shy of breaking the yarn. if you really feel the yarn start to give,loosen up! [laughs] but just shy of breaking the yarn, and holdit. that will be a really tight knot. then you can take your scissors and cut itreally close.
those little ends will blend into the fabricand not be noticeable at all. and you can confidently wash this knowingthose ends are secure. those are all the tricks i have for you forworking this wavy blanket. many thanks to stephanie gage for lettingus use her pattern. good luck! [whooshing sounds]